Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/212

200 to restrict vengeance and maintain peace. Hence the right of sanctuary, which appeared later as a prerogative of religion, was in its origin sociologic.

The avenger of blood among the Indians generally had the right to slay the criminal if found within a specified time, for instance, two days after the act; but if he should escape beyond such period, the avenger could no longer pursue, and was himself liable if he should persevere. The clan or clans concerned interfered at that stage in prescribed modes. Among some tribes localities (called by Adair the "cities of refuge") were designated, in which the accused could remain in safety until the general settlement of accounts at the next annual festival. Compare Numbers xxxv, 12: "And they shall be with you cities of refuge from the avenger; that the man-slayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment."

The functions of the avenger of blood are only referred to in the Pentateuch, but were well known in ordinary cases. The law treats of the exceptional circumstances of an accidental homicide. There is a trace, in Deuteronomy xxiii, of the general communal sanctuary in Israel. It enacts that any town or village shall be an asylum for an escaped slave. In Exodus xxi, the altar (presumably any one of the numerous village altars) is mentioned as a refuge. In the cities of refuge the sanctuary was used only for the mitigation of the revenge of blood.

A mode of bringing to notice the barbarian stage of the Israelites at the time under consideration is to translate into English familiar personal names from the Old Testament, such as the Dog, the Dove, the Hyena, the Lion's Whelp, the Strong Ass, the Adder, and the Running Hind. This brings into immediate connection the English translation of Indian names, such as Big Bear, White Buffalo, Wolf, Red Cloud, Black Hawk, Fox, Crow, and Turtle. Such Israelite names were probably of Gentile origin, that is, from the clan or gens, for the Israelites were surely Gentiles in the true sense, although later they abjured the charge. But individuals among them may also have adopted such names because they could be represented objectively. Such selection is made by some Indians apart from their totemic designation. Indians possess very few names that can not be represented in pictographs; and the very large topic of tattooing is connected with this device antecedent to writing. The compilers of the Old Testament probably desired to break down a former practice, as is shown in Leviticus xix, 28: "Ye shall not print any marks upon you." And there are other similar indications.

Adoption.—The early history after the exodus shows many cases of adoption from among the neighboring tribes in which the captive or the stranger adopted became a member of one of