Note 430.1 — Chapter XV · THE COUVADE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE STRENGTH OF THE BLOOD-TIE—CONCLUSION OF THE INQUIRY INTO THE THEORY OF THE LIFE-TOKEN.
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Nor does the solidarity of the kin for this purpose disappear without difficulty even after the State has come into existence and established its sole cognisance of crime. The offender’s relatives continue liable with himself to punishment. This explains the wholesale punishment of barbarous nations, involving persons whom we should regard as absolutely innocent. Achan’s sons and daughters were stoned with their father. The customs of the Habura in the North-west Provinces of India require that when a crime has been committed by members of a certain horde, the chief shall determine who are to be given up. “Usually a compromise is made with the police; two out of six, or three out of eight, are made over to justice, the rest escaping. All the chief does is to repeat a certain form of words, and then, taking two of the grains of wheat offered to their god, he places them on the head of the scapegoat. The oath of the brotherhood is upon him, and whether he be guilty or not he confesses to the police magistrate, or judge, and goes to the gallows or a life-long exile, confident that his chief and brethren will, as they are bound, feed and protect the wife and children he leaves behind, even before their own.”430.1 The ancient laws of Ireland provide elaborately for the responsibility of the clan in respect of crimes committed by members. In their case, however, the conception of the crime as a debt due to the injured clan had not yet been wholly effaced; for the provisions for sharing the compensation are equally elaborate.430.2 The customs of the Teutons recognised the same responsibility; and in the corruption of blood and forfeiture of property to the crown which, until the legislation of about a quarter of a century ago, were entailed in this country by conviction not only for treason but for any felony, we may discover the last remnant in modern laws of the ancient rule of visiting the sins of the individual upon the whole of his kindred.430.3