The holiest duty a native is called on to perform is that of avenging the death of his nearest relation, for it is his peculiar duty to do so:  until he has fulfilled this task he is constantly taunted by the old women; his wives, if he be married, would soon quit him; if he is unmarried not a single young woman would speak to him; his mother would constantly cry and lament she should ever have given birth to so degenerate a son; his father would treat him with contempt, and reproaches would constantly be sounded in his ear.

PURSUIT OF A CRIMINAL.

Directly therefore the funeral ceremonies have been performed the avenging parties start in pursuit of the murderer, and follow his footsteps with rapidity and energy fitting so important an occasion; unweariedly and relentlessly they press like bloodhounds upon the track, and perform journeys of a great length with a speed which would scarcely be credited; forgetting in this instance their usual caution, they trespass on other natives’ ground, and all other passions and feelings appear to be absorbed in a burning thirst for vengeance.  They sleep at night upon the track which they had been prevented by the darkness from following further, and with the first pale light of morning pursue it from the same point.

IMPLICATION OF A MURDERER’S FAMILY IN HIS CRIME.

When such energy is displayed success must of course often follow, and the overtaken criminal then falls, pierced by many spears; but should he elude his pursuers they wreak their vengeance on any native they meet.  The murderer has naturally fled to the land of his friends to claim their hospitality; sometimes this is afforded him, and sometimes he is treacherously given up to his foes; but should the criminal escape, the pursuing party rarely return from an excursion of this nature without shedding blood:  their not finding the guilty individual only inflames still more their anger, which they wreak on children or any unfortunate individual who may fall into their hands.

BREACHES OF THE LAWS OF MARRIAGE.  STEALING A WIFE.

Stealing a wife is generally punished with death.  If the woman is not returned within a certain period either her seducer or one of his relatives is certain eventually to be slain.

BREACH OF MARRIAGE LAWS.

The crime of adultery is punished severely, often with death.  Anything approaching the crime of incest, in which they include marriages out of the right line, they hold in the greatest abhorrence, closely assimilating in this last point with the North American Indians, of whom it is said in the Archaeologia Americana: 

They profess to consider it highly criminal for a man to marry a woman whose totem (family name) is the same as his own, and they relate instances when young men, for a violation of this rule, have been put to death by their own nearest relatives.*

(Footnote.  Volume 2 page 110 quoting from Tanner’s Narrative page 313.)