Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/221

* BLOOD FEUD. 191 BLOOD-RAIN. BLOOD FEUD (AS. fcchf, from fah, inimical; OHU. fcliide, injury, emiiity, Ger. Fchde, feud). In primitive society, the legalized right of private vengeance for crimes of violence. The institution of the feud and its regulation by law. involving. as it does, a restriction on the primarv' impulse of revenge, marks a great advance in the direc- tion of a settled social order. The primitive theory of the responsibility of the family, clan, and tribe for the acts of its members tended to convert an act of private vengeance into a state of war. The developing sense of law and order restricted the right of vengeance to the immedi- ate family, or next of kin, called the 'avenger of blood' (see Avexgek of Blood) of the injured person, and limited the punishment to the person committing the crime or to those who protected him from the vengeance incurred. The right was further restricted by the doctrine of sanctuary (q.v. ) and the institution of places of refuge for the manslayer fleeing from the avenger of blood (see AsrLUM: Citt of Refuge), and, at a later period, by the institution of the wergild (q.v.), with which the hunted criminal might purchase exemption from the vengeance due him. Ulti- mately the acceptance of this blood-money (q.v.) became compulsory, and the codes of early law which have come down to us are full of minute regulations fixing the amount to be paid for various crimes of violenc-e according to the state or dignity of the victim of the crime, and speci- fying the persons entitled to share in the pay- ment. The stage of society marked by the blood feud has prevailed among most of the primitive peoples with whom we are acquainted, and it forms a part of nearly all systems of primitive law. We find marked traces of it in the Mosaic legisla- tion, and it constitutes an important part of the law of the Teutonic communities which planted themselves on the ruins of the Roman Empire. Anglo-Saxon law is largely concerned with it, and in England it survived, nominally, at least, in the form of the wager of battle, until abol- ished by act of Parliament in 181!). ( See B.ttle, Tbial bt; Feud.) Consult: .Jenks. Lair and Politics in the Middle Ages: Maine, Ancient Law (11th Eng. ed., London, 1887), and Lectures on the Early History of Lnstiiuiions (6th ed., Lon- don, 1893) ; Pollock and :Maitland, History of English Laic (2d ed., London and Boston, 1899) ; and Stephen, History of the Criminal Law of England (London. 1S83). BLOODFLOWEB (Hwmanthus) . A genus of bulbous-rooted plants, of the natural order Amaryllidea?, embracing about 60 species, mostly natives of (South Africa, some of which are among the prized ornaments of our grcenhou.ses. They take their name from the usual color of their flowers, which form a fine head or duster, arising from a rosette of root-leaves. The fruit is a berry, usually with three seeds. The leaves of the different species exhibit considerable di- versity of form, in some almost linear, in others almost round : in some, also, they are erect, in others appressed to the ground. The bulbs of some of the finest species of bloodflower being very slow to produce offshoots, a curious method of propagating them is resorted to by gardeners, ■which is occasionally practiced also with other bulbous- rooted plants, by cutting them across above the middle,-upon which a numl)er of young bulbs form around the outer edge. Bcemanlhiis multiflorus, Htrmanthus liiideni, and Hccman- thus puniccus are among the most handsome in hothouse cultivation. B(rmanthus alhiftos has white flowers, and some of the others are grown as oddities. The inspissated juice of Hwmanthus toxicarius. now known as Buphane distich^i, is used by the natives of South Africa for poisoning their arrows. BLOODHOUND, or Sleuth-Hound, A va- riety of hound often used in tracking criminals. Sec Hound. BLOODLETTING. See Bleeding. BLOOD-MONEY. In early law, the compen- sation paid by a manslayer to the next of kin of the man slain, securing the ofl'ender and his relatives against subsequent retaliation. It was common in .Scandinavian and Teutonic countries until after the introduction of Christianity. • The amount of the payment was fixed by law, as well as the persons who were entitled to exact and share it. (See A-exger of Blood.) The principle was not limited to cases of manslaugh- ter, but was ultimately extended to all crimes of violence. Certain crimes, however, by reason of their enormity or their sacrilegious character — as slaying a person in church or when sleeping — or because they involved a breach of the King's peace, were "bootless,' i.e. incapable of commuta- tion for money. The perpetrator of such an offense came under the King's ban, was outlawed, and abandoned to his enemies. (See B.xisH- mext; Outlawry.) Even in such a case, how- ever, it is provided in one of the barbaric codes of the Middle Ages that the offender "may re- deem himself from the wilderness with 40 marks when the injured party has interceded for him." See Blood Feud: Webgild, and the authori- ties there referred to. BLOOD OF OUR SAVIOUR, also called Or- der OF Our Redfxiier and the Pbecious Blood of Jesus Chbist. An order of knighthood in Mantua, instituted by Duke Vineenzo Ganzaga in 1608, on the occasion of the marriage of his son with a daughter of the Duke of Savoy. It con- sisted of twenty knights, the ^Mantuan dukes being sovereigns. The collar was embroidered with scrolls containing ingots of gold in crucibles over a fire, with the words Domine probasti me. To the collar was pendant an oval medallion with two angels kneeling before an altar, on which were three drops of blood, with the words ihil isto triste recepto. The name originated in the belief that in Saint Andrew's Church, in Mantua, certain drops of our Saviour's blood are pre- served. Consult : Laurence-Ascher, Orders of Chivalry (London, 1887) : Wahlen, Ordres de Cheralerie (Brussels, 1844). BLOOD OF SAINT JANUARIUS, jan'u-.V- ri US. Sec .Tanuarius. Saint. BLOOD-PHEASANT, fez'ont (from the red color about tlie Uiroat and breast). One of the small and beautiful Himalayan quail-like pheas- ants, of the genus Ithaginis. See Pheasant. BLOOD-POISONING. See Py.emia. BLOOD-RAIN. A shower leaving red stains, due essentially to microscopic organisms con- taining red oxide of iron. The organisms consist of fungi, numerous specimens of which are carried down from the atmosphere by rain and snow.