Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/178

. They were sacred, as inhabited by the priests, and the avenger of blood could not enter them. They stood on the great highways of the country, and the roads to them were always to be kept open. To these the manslayer might flee. Here he was safe until he could have a fair trial. He was protected from the first burst of the avengers fury till his crime should receive an impartial examination. In case of accidental homicide, or of manslaughter committed in a moment of passion, he was not put to death, although, as a matter of safety, he was compelled to reside for a time in the City of Refuge, since such was the popular feeling that he could not appear abroad. Thus indirectly, but most effectually, did Moses guard against a sudden and bloody revenge. Even the author of this Report admits that this feature of the Jewish law was "perhaps the utmost mitigation practicable of the existing practice and irresistible passion" of a "semi-savage" race.

On the other hand, if, upon trial, the refugee were found to have committed deliberate murder, this sanctuary should not protect him, but he might be torn from the altar, and given up to justice. For this great crime the punishment was death, without redemption or commutation, Mahomet allowed the kinsman to take pecuniary compensation for the blood of his relative. But the law of Moses was absolute: "Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer." But the crime must be clearly proved. It must be premeditated, as when one lay in wait for his victim. The circumstances of the act must establish beyond a question that it was a cool, deliberate murder. Thus the death must be caused by a weapon, and not by a blow inflicted with the fist. And