Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/211

Rh noted. Other clans also have animal names: the Shillimites or Fox clan, of Naphtali; the Shuhamites or Serpent clan, of Benjamin; the Bachrites or Camel clan, of Ephraim and Benjamin; the Elonites or Oak clan, of Zebulon; the Tolaites or Worm clan, of Issachar; and the Arelets or Lion clan, of Gad.

A special suggestion comes from the tribe of Simeon. In the blessing of Jacob, Simeon is coupled with Levi as a tribe scattered in Israel. Some Simeonites lived in the south of the territory of Judah, but they do not appear there as an independent local tribe. It would seem that Simeon remained as a divided stock, having representatives through the female line in the different local groups. When the old system was transformed, Simeon lost importance and ultimately dropped from the list of tribes. The name of the tribe was lost but not the people, as has been noticed also in careful statistical examination of the Indians.

The tribe of Judah received the powerful accession of the Dog tribe, the Calebites (to be again mentioned), among whom there were many animal names.

In view of the above, and the additional fact that the early Israelites freely intermarried with the surrounding nations, it becomes highly probable that the totemic system of those neighbors existed in all Israel, as was obviously the case in Judah.

Punishment.—In the stage of barbarism man belongs not to himself, but to his clan and tribe. In civilization crime is the act of an individual for which he is responsible to the whole community, and there can be no crime without a malicious intent. In the totemic stage the clan was responsible to all its members and to all other clans for the offense of any of its own members, and the act itself, not its intent, constituted the offense. Hence the rules respecting obedience, punishment, and protection differ from those of civilized man.

Punishments among the Indians were chiefly death or expulsion from the tribe—the latter, from the unprotected state of the offender, being tantamount to death. The code consisted in the application of the lex talionis. The vengeance of blood for homicide was exacted as a clan duty. It was executed by the clan of the person killed, generally by the nearest of clan kinship, and it was required even if the death were by accident, unless the killing was condoned by payment. Among the Israelites the lex talionis was likewise the fundamental law, and the duty of blood revenge also devolved on the kin by the mother's side—i.e., the kindred according to the normal clan system.

Sanctuary.—The doctrine that no crime could be individual, but might be committed against a clan by a clan through one of its members, rendered it necessary to have some special provision