Part 31

In the social organisation of all these peoples there is {220} thus originally a general congruity between the principle of local proximity and the principle of descent. On the one hand, all freemen, all true members of the society, who belong to the same local group, are at the same time kinsmen; on the other hand, all persons who are united by the tie of a common descent belong to the same or neighbouring local groups. The cause of this congruity is the universal prevalence of the paternal system of descent. Whether the case was different in prehistoric times is an open question. That the ancient Chinese reckoned kinship through the mother, not through the father, has been conjectured on philological grounds,[132] as to the plausibility of which I can express no opinion. Several writers have also endeavoured to prove that the uterine line of descent prevailed among the primitive Aryans, but the evidence is far from being conclusive. I agree with Professor Leist that all so-called survivals of a system of maternal descent in the prehistoric antiquity of the "Aryan" races are doubtful, if not false.[133] As regards the Teutons, much importance has been attributed to the specially close connection which, according to Tacitus, existed between a sister's children and their mother's brothers;[134] but, as Professor Schrader remarks, in spite of the prominent position of the maternal uncle among Teutonic peoples, the _patruus_ distinctly came before the _avunculus_, the agnates before the cognates, in testamentary succession.[135] The existence of a custom which in some respect recognises uterine relationship does not prove the earlier prevalence of the full maternal system of descent, to the exclusion of the paternal.

[Footnote 132: Puini, quoted by Grosse, _op. cit._ p. 193.]

[Footnote 133: Leist, _Alt-arisches Jus Gentium_, p. 58. _Idem_, _Alt-arisches Jus Civile_, i. 490.]

[Footnote 134: Tacitus, _Germania_, 20.]

[Footnote 135: Schrader, _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_, p. 395.]

Progress in civilisation is up to a certain point connected with social expansion. Among savages the largest permanent social unit is generally the tribe, and even the tribal bond is often very loose, if not entirely wanting. It is true that associations of tribes occur even among so {221} low a race as the Australian aborigines, but unaccompanied by any kind of political organisation.[136] At a somewhat higher stage we meet with the famous league of the Iroquois--a federation on republican principles of five distinct tribes, which could point to three centuries of uninterrupted domestic unity and peace[137]--and the kingdoms of various African potentates. Civilisation only thrives in states. From small beginnings round the lake of Mexico the Aztecs gradually succeeded, through conquest, in forming an empire which covered probably almost sixteen thousand square leagues. However, between the various tribes lay broad belts of uninhabited territory, which enabled them to keep up a shy and exclusive attitude towards each other; and at the time of the Spanish conquest the empire of Mexico was, in fact, little more than "a chain of intimidated Indian tribes, who, kept apart from each other under the influence of mutual timidity, were held down by dread of attacks from an unassailable robber-stronghold in their midst."[138] In South America, in a long course of ages, six nations inhabited the region which extends from the water-parting between the basins of the Huallaga and Ucayali to that between the basins of the Ucayali and Lake Titicaca. When increasing population brought them in contact with each other, a struggle for supremacy ended in the mastery of the fittest--the Incas; and the empire of the latter was subsequently extended by the subjugation of a variety of other nations or tribes.[139] The extent of territory claimed for ancient China by the earliest records is more than double the size of modern France, and, though it was often divided into different states, the great dynasties ruled over the whole of it.[140] The two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt were united at a {222} very early date; and no less imposing was the great kingdom of Babylon and Assur. We may assume that all these empires were formed by an association, either voluntary or forcible, of different tribes, as was the case with those states with whose origin and early growth we are somewhat better acquainted. As late as the time of the Judges the tribes of Israel either stood each entirely alone or formed smaller groups, and there was no such thing as an Israelitish nation in a political sense until the unity of the people came into being under Samuel and the first kings.[141] The Vedic people consisted of a great number of independent tribes, between which only temporary alliances were made for the sake of defence or attack. But gradually the alliances grew more permanent; war-kings united several tribes, surrounded themselves with a military nobility, and founded great kingdoms.[142] In Greece and Italy the states grew out of forts which had been built on elevated places to serve as common strongholds or places of refuge in case of war. Several tribes united so as to be better able to resist dangerous enemies, and one of the fortified towns in time gained supremacy over all others in the neighbourhood, as Athens did in Attica and Alba Longa in Latium. Similar districts, ruled by a town, were called _poleis_ or _civitates_.[143] In historical times attempts were made to carry this process further by joining several of the small states under the rule of one. In this Sparta and Athens failed, whereas the efforts of Rome met with unequalled success.

[Footnote 136: Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 62 _sq._]

[Footnote 137: Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 141.]

[Footnote 138: Scheppig, 'Ancient Mexicans,' &c. p. 6, in Spencer's _Descriptive Sociology_. Prescott, _History of the Conquest of Mexico_, p. 4. Ratzel, _History of Mankind_, ii. 199, 202.]

[Footnote 139: Markham, 'Geographical Positions of the Tribes which formed the Empire of the Yncas,' in _Jour. Roy. Geo. Soc._ xli. 287 _sqq._]

[Footnote 140: Simcox, _op. cit._ ii. 10, 13.]

[Footnote 141: Kuenen, _Religion of Israel_, i. 133.]

[Footnote 142: Zimmer, _Altindisches Leben_, pp. 158, 192 _sq._]

[Footnote 143: Leist, _Græco-italische Rechtsgeschichte_, p. 109 _sqq._]

The development of the State tended to weaken or destroy the smaller units of which it was composed. The central power, hostile to separatism, naturally endeavoured to appropriate the authority invested in the latter, and in a well-governed state these on their part had little reason to resist. The main object of the clan, phratry, and tribe was to protect their respective members; hence they became superfluous in the presence of a powerful national {223} government which unselfishly and impartially looked after the interests of its various subjects. Adam Smith contrasts the strong clan-feeling which still in the eighteenth century prevailed among the Scotch Highlanders with the little regard felt for remote relatives by the English, and observes that in countries where the authority of the law is not sufficiently strong to give security to every member of the State the different branches of the same family choose to live in the neighbourhood of one another, their association being frequently necessary for their common defence; whereas in a country like England, where the authority of the law was well established, "the descendants of the same family, having no such motive for keeping together, naturally separate and disperse, as interest or inclination may direct."[144] It seems also probable that the persistency of the village community or the gentile system among the Hindus and Slavs has been largely due to the weakness of the State or to the badness of the government.

[Footnote 144: Smith, _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, p. 326 _sq._]

As the larger units, so the family also was influenced by the rise of the State, but originally in quite the opposite direction. Whilst the former dwindled away, the family grew in importance. Nowhere do we find the family-tie stronger, nowhere does the father or eldest male ascendant possess greater power than in the archaic State. In a previous chapter I have already tried to explain this singular fact. I pointed out that in early society there seems to be a certain antagonism between the family and the clan, that the family was strengthened because the clan was weakened, that the father became a patriarch only as the inheritor of the authority which formerly belonged to the clan. But we have also noticed that at a higher stage the family again lost in importance.[145]

[Footnote 145: _Supra_, i. 627 _sq._]

It seems that the tribes which united into one nation or state were normally, in the first instance, branches of the same stock, living in the same neighbourhood and speaking {224} the same language, though with dialectic differences. Like the smaller units, such a state was no doubt frequently adulterated by the amalgamation of aliens, but here again fictions were substituted for realities, and the foreign extraction was forgotten. The case was different, however, when the commonwealth was formed or aggrandised by the subjugation of a strange race. Instead of being adopted into the circle of the conquerors, the subdued people were treated as their inferiors in blood, civic rights were denied to them, and in many cases they were kept in servitude; thus even here the principle of a common origin as the base of citizenship was preserved, the conquerors being the only citizens in the full sense of the term. But however strong and durable similar barriers may be, they are not imperishable. The different races inhabiting the same country under the same government tend to draw nearer each other, the inferior race is incorporated with the nation, and local proximity instead of descent at last becomes the basis of community in political functions. This change, however, was neither so radical nor so startling as it has been represented to be;[146] fictions on a large scale still formed a bridge between ancient and modern ideas. Sir Henry Maine says that we cannot now hope to understand the good faith of the fiction by which in early times the incoming population were assumed to be descended from the same stock as the people on whom they were engrafted.[147] But is this good faith more astonishing than the readiness with which a common language, in spite of the most obvious facts to the contrary, is even now constantly taken as the sign of a common origin? Though identity of language, even in the case of whole peoples, proves nothing more than contact or neighbourhood, a person's mother-tongue popularly decides his race, and language and nationality are regarded almost as synonymous. Genealogical fictions, then, are not merely a thing of the past, nor have they ceased to influence political ideas. The modern theory of {225} nationalism vindicates the right of the strongest nationality to absorb the other nationalities living within the same state by a method of compulsory engraftment, and this can be effected only by their accepting its language. But this theory is not so much concerned with language as such, as with language as an emblem of nationality. At the bottom of it is the narrow feeling of racial intolerance, quite ready however to be appeased by a fiction. The doctrine of nationalism is the spectre of the same political principle--the principle of a common descent, either real or fictitious--on which states were founded and governed when civilisation was in its cradle.

[Footnote 146: Maine, _Ancient Law_, p. 129.]

[Footnote 147: _Ibid._ p. 131.]

Like the smaller units, the archaic State was not only a political but at the same time a religious community. Over and above all separate cults there was one religion common to all its citizens. In ancient Mexico and Peru it was the religion of the dominant people, the worship of the god of war or of the sun; and the sovereigns themselves were regarded as incarnations or children of this god.[148] In other cases the state religion arose by a fusion of different cults. The gods of the communities which united into a state not only continued to receive the worship of their old believers, but were elevated to the rank of national deities, and formed together a heavenly commonwealth to which the earthly commonwealth jointly paid its homage. In this way, it seems, the Roman,[149] Egyptian,[150] Assyrian, and Babylonian[151] pantheons were recruited; whilst the Greeks went a step further and, already in prehistoric times, constructed a Pan-Hellenic Olympus.[152] Sometimes also, as Professor Robertson Smith points out, different gods were themselves fused into one, as when the mass of the Israelites in their local worship of Yahveh identified him with the Baalim of the Canaanite high places, and carried {226} over into his worship the ritual of the Canaanite shrines, not deeming that in so doing they were less truly Yahveh-worshippers than before.[153]

[Footnote 148: Ratzel, _op. cit._ ii. 199 _sq._ Markham, _History of Peru_, p. 23.]

[Footnote 149: _Cf._ von Jhering, _Geist des römischen Rechts_, i. 269.]

[Footnote 150: Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 148.]

[Footnote 151: Mürdter-Delitzsch, _Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens_, p. 24. Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 39.]

[Footnote 152: _Cf._ Rohde, _Psyche_, p. 36.]

[Footnote 153: Robertson Smith, _op. cit._ p. 38.]

Nobody will deny that the common religion added strength to the State, but it seems that its national importance has often been overrated. On the one hand, the political fusion between different communities took place before the religious fusion and was obviously the cause of it; on the other hand, the mere tie of a common religion has never proved sufficient to bind together neighbouring tribes or peoples so as to form one nation. The Greek states had both the same religion and the same language, but nevertheless remained distinct states. Professor Seeley's assertion that "in the East to this day nationality and religion are almost convertible terms,"[154] is very far from the truth. Wallin, who had exceptional opportunities to study the feelings of different Muhammedan nationalities, observes that "every Oriental people has a certain national aversion to every other, and even the inhabitants of one province to those of another. The Turk does not readily tolerate the Arab, nor the Persian, and these feel similarly towards the Turk; the Arab does not get on well with the Persian, nor the Persian with the Arab; the Syrian does not like the Egyptian, whom he calls inhuman, and the latter does not willingly associate with the Syrian, whom he calls simple-minded and stupid; and the son of the desert condemns both."[155] It sometimes seems as if the national spirit of a people rather influenced its religion than was influenced by it. Patriotism has even succeeded in nationalising the greatest enemy of nationalities, Christianity, and has well nigh revived the old notion of a national god, whose chief business is to look after his own people and, especially, to fight its battles.

[Footnote 154: Seeley, _Natural Religion_, p. 229.]

[Footnote 155: Wallin, _Anteckningar från Orienten_, iv. 181 _sq._]

It is obvious that the various aspects of social development {227} which we have now considered have exercised much influence upon the altruistic sentiment. The combination of local proximity and political unity, the notion of a common descent, and the fellowship of a common religion, tend to engender friendly feelings between the members of each respective group. Hence, when the political unit grew larger, when the idea of kinship developed into that of racial affinity, and when the same religion became common to all the citizens of the State, or, as happened in several cases, extended beyond the limits of any particular country or nation, the altruistic sentiment underwent a corresponding expansion--unless, of course, it was checked by some rival influence. The increasing coherence of the political aggregate, again, added to the strength of this sentiment; and so did the antagonism towards foreign communities and the natural antipathy or hatred to their members. As people like that to which they are used or which is their own, they dislike that which is strange or unfamiliar. Among ourselves we notice this particularly in children[156] and uneducated persons, whose anger may be aroused by the sight of a black skin or an oriental dress or the sounds of a strange language. Antipathies of this kind have directly influenced the moral valuation of conduct towards foreigners; but at the same time they have also strengthened the feelings of mutual goodwill between tribesmen or compatriots. For likes and dislikes are increased by the contrast; to hate a thing makes us better love its opposite. So also the competition and enmity which prevail between different communities tend within each community to intensify its members' devotion to the common goal and their friendly feelings towards one another.

[Footnote 156: Compayré, _op. cit._ p. 100:--"Tout ce qui est inattendu, imprévu, est insupportable à l'enfant, et provoque soit la peur, soit plus tard la colère. J'ai vu un de mes fils, à quatre ans et demi, entrer dans de véritables rages, toutes les fois que je lui parlais dans le patois de mon pays."]

But the altruistic sentiment has not necessarily reference only to individuals belonging to the same social unit. {228} Gregarious animals may be kindly disposed to any member of their species which is not an object of their anger or their fear. Savages have shown themselves capable of tender feelings towards suffering and harmless strangers.[157] The sensibility of little children sometimes goes beyond the circle of the family; Madame Manacéine tells us of a girl two years old who, in the Zoological Gardens at St. Petersburg, began to cry bitterly when she saw an elephant walking over the keeper's body, although the other spectators were quietly watching the trick.[158] In mankind altruism has been narrowed by social isolation, by differences in race, language, habits, and customs, by enmity and suspicion. But increased intercourse has gradually led to conditions favourable to its expansion. As Buckle remarks, ignorance is the most powerful of all the causes of national hatred; "when you increase the contact, you remove the ignorance, and thus you diminish the hatred."[159] People of different nationalities feel that in spite of all dissimilarities between them there is much that they have in common; and frequent intercourse makes the differences less marked, or obliterates many of them altogether. There can be no doubt that this process will go on in the future. And equally certain it is that similar causes will produce similar effects--that altruism will continue to expand, and that the notion of a human brotherhood will receive more support from the actual feelings of mankind than it does at present.

[Footnote 157: See _supra_, i. 570-572, 581.]

[Footnote 158: Manacéine, _Le surmenage mental dans la civilisation moderne_, p. 248. See also Compayré, _op. cit._ p. 323.]

[Footnote 159: Buckle, _History of Civilization in England_, i. 222.]

CHAPTER XXXV

SUICIDE

IN previous chapters we have discussed the moral valuation of acts, forbearances, and omissions, which directly concern the interests of other men; we shall now proceed to consider moral ideas regarding such modes of conduct as chiefly concern a man's own welfare. Among these we notice, in the first place, acts affecting his existence.

Suicide, or intentional self-destruction, has often been represented as a fruit of a higher civilisation; Dr. Steinmetz, on the other hand, in his essay on 'Suicide among Primitive Peoples,' thinks it probable that "there is a greater propensity to suicide among savage than among civilised peoples."[1] The former view is obviously erroneous; the latter probably holds good of certain savages as compared with certain peoples of culture, but cannot claim general validity.

[Footnote 1: Steinmetz, 'Suicide among Primitive Peoples,' in _American Anthropologist_, vii. 60.]

Among several uncivilised races suicide is said to be unknown.[2] To these belong some of the lower savages--the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego,[3] the Andaman Islanders,[4] {230} and various Australian tribes;[5] whilst as regards most other tribes at about the same stage of culture information seems to be wanting. Of the natives in Western and Central Australia Sir G. Grey writes, "Whenever I have interrogated them on this point, they have invariably laughed at me, and treated my question as a joke."[6] When a Caroline Islander was told of suicides committed by Europeans, he thought that he had not grasped what was said to him, as he never in his life had heard of anything so ridiculous.[7] The Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, though they have no intense fear of death, cannot understand suicide; "the idea of a man killing himself strikes them as inexplicable."[8]

[Footnote 2: Paulitschke, _Ethnographie Nord-ost-Afrikas_, p. 205 (Danakil and Galla). Munzinger, _Ostafrikanische Studien_, p. 532 (Barea and Kunáma). New, _Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa_, p. 99 (Wanika). Felkin, 'Notes on the For Tribe of Central Africa,' in _Proceed. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh_, xiii. 231. Lumholtz (_Unknown Mexico_, i. 243) thinks it is doubtful whether a pagan Tarahumare ever killed himself.]

[Footnote 3: Bridge, in _South American Missionary Magazine_, xiii. 211.]

[Footnote 4: Man, _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xii. 111.]

[Footnote 5: Grey, _Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia_, ii. 248. Curr, _Recollections of Squatting in Victoria_, p. 277 (Bangerang). Among the tribes of Western Victoria described by Mr. Dawson (_Australian Aborigines_, p. 62) suicide is not unknown, though it is uncommon; "if a native wishes to die, and cannot get any one to kill him, he will sometimes put himself in the way of a venomous snake, that he may be bitten by it."]

[Footnote 6: Grey, _op. cit._ ii. 248.]

[Footnote 7: von Kotzebue, _Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea_, iii. 195.]

[Footnote 8: Scott Robertson, _Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush_, p. 381.]

Among many savages and barbarians suicide is stated to be very rare,[9] or to occur only occasionally;[10] whereas {231} among others it is represented as either common or extremely prevalent.[11] Of the Kamchadales we are told that the least apprehension of danger drives them to despair, and that they fly to suicide as a relief, not only from present, but even from imaginary evil; "not only those who are confined for some offence, but such as are discontented with their lot, prefer a voluntary death to an uneasy life, and the pains of disease."[12] Among the Hos, an Indian hill tribe, suicide is reported to be so frightfully prevalent as to afford no parallel in any known country:--"If a girl appears mortified by anything that has been said, it is not safe to let her go away till she is soothed. A reflection on a man's honesty or veracity may be sufficient to send him to self-destruction. In a recent case, a young woman attempted to poison herself because her uncle would not partake of the food she had cooked for him."[13] Among the Karens of Burma suicide is likewise very common where Christianity has not been introduced. If a man has some incurable or painful disease, he says in a matter-of-fact way that he will hang himself, and he does as he says; if a girl's parents compel her to marry the man she does not love, she hangs herself; wives sometimes hang themselves through jealousy, sometimes because they quarrel with their husbands, and sometimes out of mere {232} chagrin, because they are subject to depreciating comparisons; and it is a favourite threat with a wife or daughter, when not allowed to have her own way, that she will hang herself.[14] Among some uncivilised peoples suicide is frequently practised by women, though rarely by men.[15]

[Footnote 9: Nansen, _Eskimo Life_, p. 267 (Greenlanders). Murdoch, 'Ethnol. Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ix. 41 (Point Barrow Eskimo), von Siebold, _Die Aino auf der Insel Yesso_, p. 35. von Stenin, 'Die Kirgisen des Kreises Saissansk im Gebiete von Ssemipalatinsk,' in _Globus_, lxix. 230. Beltrame, _Il Fiume Bianco_, p. 51 (Arabs). Felkin, 'Waganda Tribe of Central Africa,' in _Proceed. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh_, xiii. 723. Schwarz, quoted by Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 24 (Bakwiri). _Ibid._ p. 52 (Banaka and Bapuku). Wandrer, _ibid._ p. 325 (Hottentots). Fritsch, _Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's_, p. 221 (Bantu race). Sorge, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 421 (Nissan Islanders in the Bismarck Archipelago). Kubary, 'Die Verbrechen und das Strafverfahren auf den Pelau-Inseln,' in _Original-Mittheilungen aus der ethnol. Abtheil. d. königl. Museen zu Berlin_, i. 78 (Pelew Islanders). Among the Malays suicide is reported to be extremely rare (Brooke, _Ten Years in Saráwak_, i. 56; Ellis, 'The Amok of the Malays,' in _Journal of Mental Science_, xxxix. 331); but Dr. Gilmore Ellis has been told by many Malays that they consider Amok a kind of suicide. If a man wishes to die, he "amoks" in the hope of being killed, rather than kills himself, suicide being a most heinous sin according to the ethics of Muhammedanism (_ibid._ p. 331). In Siam suicide is rare (Bowring, _Siam_, i. 106). Of the Western Islanders of Torres Straits Dr. Haddon says (in _Reports of the Cambridge Anthrop. Expedition to Torres Straits_, v. 278) that he does not remember to have heard of a case of suicide in real life, though there are some instances of it in their folk-tales.]

[Footnote 10: Comte, quoted by Mouhot, _Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China_, ii. 27 _sq._ (Bannavs in Cambodia). Kloss, _In the Andamans and Nicobars_, p. 316 (Nicobarese). Among the Bakongo cases of suicide occur, "although much less frequently than in civilised countries" (Ward, _Five Years with the Congo Cannibals_, p. 45).]

[Footnote 11: Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, _Report on Alaska_, p. 158 (Atkha Aleuts). Steller, _Beschreibung von Kamtschatka_, p. 293 _sq._, Krasheninnikoff, _History of Kamschatka_, pp. 176, 200. Georgi, _Russia_, iii. 133 _sq._ (Kamchadales), 184 (Chukchi), 205 (Aleuts). Brooke, _op. cit._ i. 55 (Sea Dyaks). Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 106. Turner, _Samoa_, p. 305; Tregear, 'Niue,' in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ ii. 14; Thomson, _Savage Island_, p. 109; Hood, _Cruise in the Western Pacific_, p. 22 (Savage Islanders). Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 111 _sq._; Collins, _English Colony in New South Wales_, i. 524 (Maoris). Reade, _Savage Africa_, p. 553 _sq._; _Idem_, quoted by Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 117, n. 33 (West African Negroes). Monrad, _Skildring af Guinea-Kysten_, p. 23. Decle, _Three Years in Savage Africa_, p. 74 (Barotse). In Tana, of the New Hebrides (Gray, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxviii. 132) and Nias (Rosenberg, _Der malayische Archipel_, p. 146) suicides are said to be not infrequent.]

[Footnote 12: Georgi, _op. cit._ iii. 133 _sq._ _Cf._ Krasheninnikoff, _op. cit._ p. 176.]

[Footnote 13: Tickell, 'Memoir on the Hodésum,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, ix. 807. Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 206.]

[Footnote 14: Mason, 'Dwellings, &c., of the Karens,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxxvii. pt. ii. 141.]

[Footnote 15: Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River_, i. 394 (Dacotahs); ii. 171 _sq._ (Chippewas). Bradbury, _Travels in the Interior of America_, p. 87 (Dacotahs). Brooke Low, quoted by Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, i. 117 (Sea Dyaks). Munzinger, _Die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos_, p. 93.]

The causes which, among savages, lead to suicide are manifold:--disappointed love or jealousy;[16] illness[17] or old age;[18] grief over the death of a child,[19] a husband,[20] or a {233} wife;[21] fear of punishment;[22] slavery[23] or brutal treatment by a husband;[24] remorse,[25] shame or wounded pride, anger or revenge.[26] In various cases an offended person kills himself for the express purpose of taking revenge upon the offender.[27] Thus among the Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast, "should a person commit suicide, and before so doing attribute the act to the conduct of another person, that other person is required by native law to undergo a like fate. The practice is termed killing oneself upon the head of another, and the person whose conduct is supposed to have driven the suicide to commit the rash act is visited with a death of an exactly similar nature"--unless, indeed, the family of the suicide be pacified with a money compensation.[28] With reference to the Savage Islanders, who especially in heathen {234} times were much addicted to suicide, we are told that, "like angry children, they are tempted to avenge themselves by picturing the trouble that they will bring upon the friends who have offended them."[29] Among the Thlinkets an offended person who is unable to take revenge in any other way commits suicide in order to expose the person who gave the offence to the vengeance of his surviving relatives and friends.[30] Among the Chuvashes it was formerly the custom for enraged persons to hang themselves at the doors of their enemies.[31] A similar method of taking revenge is still not infrequently resorted to by the Votyaks, who believe that the ghost of the deceased will then persecute the offender.[32] Sometimes a suicide has the character of a human sacrifice.[33] In the times of epidemics or great calamities the Chukchi sacrifice their own lives in order to appease evil spirits and the souls of departed relatives.[34] Among some savages it is common for a woman, especially if married to a man of importance, to commit suicide on the death of her husband,[35] or to demand to be buried with him;[36] and many Brazilian Indians killed themselves on the graves of their chiefs.[37]

[Footnote 16: Lasch, 'Der Selbstmord aus erotischen Motiven bei den primitiven Völkern,' in _Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft_, ii. 579 _sqq._ Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_, p. 503. Keating, _op. cit._ ii. 172 (Chippewas). Eastman, _Dacotah_, pp. 89 _sqq._, 168 _sq._; Dodge, _Our Wild Indians_, p. 321 _sq._ (Dacotahs). Turner, 'Ethnology of the Ungava District, Hudson Bay Territory,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 187 (Koksoagmyut). Mason, in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxxvii. pt. ii. 141 (Karens). Brooke Low, quoted by Ling Roth, _Natives of Sarawak_, i. 115 (Sea Dyaks). Kubary, 'Religion der Pelauer,' in Bastian, _Allerlei aus Volks- und Menschenkunde_, i. 3 (Pelew Islanders). Senfft, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 452 (Marshall Islanders). Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 243 _sq._ (natives of the Banks' Islands and Northern New Hebrides). Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, vi. 115; Malone, _Three Years' Cruise in the Australasian Colonies_, p. 72 _sq._ (Maoris). Reade, _Savage Africa_, p. 554 (West African Negroes). Munzinger, _Die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos_, p. 93 _sq._]

[Footnote 17: Dodge, _op. cit._ p. 321 _sq._ (North American Indians) Holm, 'Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,' in _Meddelelser om Grönland_, x. 181 (Angmagsaliks of Eastern Greenland). Georgi, _op. cit._ iii. 134 (Kamchadales). Mason, in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxxvii. pt. ii. 141 (Karens). Gray, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxviii. 132 (natives of Tana, New Hebrides). Sartori, 'Die Sitte der Alten- und Krankentötung,' in _Globus_, lxvii. 109 _sq._]

[Footnote 18: Perrin du Lac, _Voyage dans les deux Louisianes_, p. 346. Nansen, _First Crossing of Greenland_, ii. 331; _Idem_, _Eskimo Life_, pp. 170, 267 (Greenlanders). Steller, _Beschreibung von Kamtschatka_, p. 294. Wilkes, _U.S. Exploring Expedition_, iii. 96; Hale, _U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI. Ethnography and Philology_, p. 65 (Fijians). Diodorus Siculus, _Bibliotheca historica_, iii. 33.5 (Troglodytes). Pomponius Mela, _De situ orbis_, iii. 7 (Seres). Hartknoch, _Alt- und Neues Preussen_, i. 181 (ancient Prussians). Mareschalcus, _Annales Herulorum ac Vandalorum_, i. 8 (_Monumenta inedita rerum Germanicarum_, i. 191); Procopius, _De bello Gothico_, ii. 14 (Heruli). Maurer, _Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes zum Christenthume_, ii. 79, n. 48 (ancient Scandinavians).]

[Footnote 19: Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, _op. cit._ p. 158 (Atkha Aleuts). Keating, _op. cit._ ii. 172 (Chippewas). Colenso, _Maori Races_, pp. 46, 57; Dieffenbach, _op. cit._ ii. 112 (Maoris).]

[Footnote 20: Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, _op. cit._ p. 158 (Atkha Aleuts). Haddon, in _Rep. Cambridge Anthr. Exped. to Torres Straits_, v. 17 (Western Islanders, according to a Kauralaig folk-tale). Colenso, _op. cit._ pp. 46, 57; Dieffenbach, _op. cit._ ii. 112 (Maoris).]

[Footnote 21: Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, _op. cit._ p. 158 (Atkha Aleuts). Fawcett, _Saoras_, p. 17. Dieffenbach, _op. cit._ ii. 112 (Maoris).]

[Footnote 22: Steller, _Beschreibung von Kamtschatka_, p. 293. Dieffenbach, _op. cit._ ii. 112 (Maoris).]

[Footnote 23: Modigliani, _Viaggio a Nías_, p. 473. Decle, _op. cit._ p. 74 (Barotse). Monrad, _op. cit._ p. 25 (Negroes of Accra). Donne, _Biathanatos_, p. 56 (American Indians).]

[Footnote 24: Wied-Neuwied, _Travels in the Interior of North America_, p. 349 (Mandans).]

[Footnote 25: Turner, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 187 (Koksoagmyut). Mr. Dawson (_Australian Aborigines_, p. 62 _sq._) tells us of a native of Western Victoria who decided to commit suicide because, being intoxicated, he had killed his wife, and was so sorry for it. He besought the tribe to kill him, and seeing his determination to starve himself to death, his friends at last sent for the tribal executioner, who pushed a spear through him.]

[Footnote 26: Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, _op. cit._ p. 158 (Atkha Aleuts). Keating, _op. cit._ ii. 171 (Chippewas). Dalton, _op. cit._ p. 206; Jickell, in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, ix. 807 (Hos). Colquhoun, _Amongst the Shans_, p. 76 _sq._ (Lethtas). Mac Mahon, _Far Cathay_, p. 241 (Tarus, one of the Chino-Burmese border tribes). Brooke, _op. cit._ i. 55 (Sea Dyaks). Chalmers, _Pioneer Life and Work in New Guinea_, p. 227 (a woman at Port Moresby; Mr. Abel [_Savage Life in New Guinea_, p. 102] speaks of a New Guinea woman who was so annoyed because her old village friends had not visited her during her illness that she attempted to commit suicide). Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 243 _sq._ (natives of the Banks' Islands and Northern New Hebrides). Williams and Calvert, _op. cit._ p. 106 (Fijians). Tregear, in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ ii. 14 (Savage Islanders). Dieffenbach, _op. cit._ ii. 111 _sq._; Collins, _op. cit._ i. 524; Angas, _Savage Life in Australia and New Zealand_, ii. 45; Colenso, _op. cit._ p. 56 _sq._ (Maoris). Ward, _Five Years with the Congo Cannibals_, p. 45 (Bakongo). Lasch, 'Besitzen die Naturvölker ein persönliches Ehrgefühl?' in _Zeitschr. f. Socialwissenschaft_, iii. 837 _sqq._]

[Footnote 27: See Lasch, 'Rache als Selbstmordmotiv,' in _Globus_, lxxiv. 37 _sqq._; Steinmetz, 'Gli antichi scongiuri giuridici contro i creditori,' in _Rivista italiana di sociologia_, ii. 49 _sqq._]

[Footnote 28: Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 302. The same custom is mentioned by Monrad (_op. cit._ p. 23 _sq._), Bowdich (_Mission to Ashantee_, pp. 256, 257, 259 n. [double dagger]), and Reade (_Savage Africa_, p. 554).]

[Footnote 29: Thomson, _Savage Island_, p. 109.]

[Footnote 30: Krause, _Die Tlinkit-Indianer_, p. 222.]

[Footnote 31: Lebedew, 'Die simbirskischen Tschuwaschen,' in Erman's _Archiv für wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland_, ix. 586 n. **]

[Footnote 32: Buch, 'Die Wotjaken,' in _Acta Soc. Scient. Fennicæ_, xii. 611 _sq._]

[Footnote 33: See Lasch, 'Religiöser Selbstmord und seine Beziehung zum Menschenopfer.' in _Globus_, lxxv. 69 _sqq._]

[Footnote 34: Skrzyncki, 'Der Selbstmord bei den Tschuktschen,' in _Am Ur-Quell_, v. 207 _sq._]

[Footnote 35: Ashe, _Two Kings of Uganda_, p. 342 (Wahuma). Johnston, _Uganda Protectorate_, ii. 610 (Bairo). Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, ii. 340 (natives of Bali and Lombok).]

[Footnote 36: Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_, p. 125 (Fijians). Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 289 (natives of Aurora Island, New Hebrides).]

[Footnote 37: Dorman, _Origin of Primitive Superstitions_, p. 211. _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 209. Of the Niger Delta tribes M. le Comte de Cardi writes (in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxix. 55):--"On the deportation of a king or a chief by the British or other European government for some offence I have seen the wives of the deported man throw themselves into the river and fight like mad women with the people who went to their rescue; I have also seen some of the male retainers both free and slaves of a deported chief attempt their own lives at the moment when the vessel carrying away their chief disappeared from their sight."]

In various other cases, besides the voluntary sacrifices of widows or slaves, the suicides of savages are connected with their notions of a future life.[38] The belief in the new {235} human birth of the departed soul has led West African negroes to take their own lives when in distant slavery, that they may awaken in their native land.[39] Among the Chukchi there are persons who kill themselves for the purpose of effecting an earlier reunion with their deceased relatives.[40] Among the Samoyedes it happens that a young girl who is sold to an old man strangles herself in the hope of getting a more suitable bridegroom in the other world.[41] We are told that the Kamchadales inflict death on themselves with the utmost coolness because they maintain that "the future life is a continuation of the present, but much better and more perfect, where they expect to have all their desires more completely satisfied than here."[42] The suicides of old people, again, are in some cases due to the belief that a man enters into the other world in the same condition in which he left this one, and that it consequently is best for him to die before he grows too old and feeble.[43]

[Footnote 38: _Cf._ Steinmetz, in _American Anthropologist_, vii. 60; Vierkandt, _Naturvölker und Kulturvölker_, p. 284; Lasch, in _Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft_, ii. 585.]

[Footnote 39: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 5.]

[Footnote 40: Skrzyncki, in _Am Ur-Quell_, v. 207.]

[Footnote 41: von Struve, 'Die Samojeden im Norden von Sibirien,' in _Ausland_, 1880, p. 777.]

[Footnote 42: Georgi, _op. cit._ iii. 265. _Cf._ Steller, _Beschreibung von Kamtschatka_, p. 294.]

[Footnote 43: Hale, _op. cit._ p. 65 (Fijians). _Cf._ _supra_, i. 390.]

The notions of savages concerning life after death also influence their moral valuation of suicide. Where men are supposed to require wives not only during their lifetime, but after their death, it may be a praiseworthy thing, or even a duty, for a widow to accompany her husband to the land of souls. According to Fijian beliefs, the woman who at the funeral of her husband met death with the greatest devotedness would become the favourite wife in the abode of spirits, whereas a widow who did not permit herself to be killed was considered an adulteress.[44] Among the Central African Bairo those women who refrained from destroying themselves over their husbands' graves were regarded as outcasts.[45] On the Gold Coast a man of low rank who has married one of the king's sisters is {236} expected to make away with himself when his wife dies, or upon the death of an only male child; and "should he outrage native custom and neglect to do so, a hint is conveyed to him that he will be put to death, which usually produces the desired effect."[46] The customary suicides of the Chukchi are solemnly performed in the presence and with the assistance of relatives and neighbours.[47] The Samoyedes maintain that suicide by strangulation "is pleasing to God, who looks upon it as a voluntary sacrifice, which deserves reward."[48] The opinion of the Kamchadales that it is "allowable and praiseworthy" for a man to take his own life,[49] was probably connected with their optimistic notions about their fate after death. And that the habitual suicides of old persons have the sanction of public opinion is particularly obvious where they may choose between killing themselves and being killed.[50]

[Footnote 44: Westermarck, _op. cit._ p. 125 _sq._]

[Footnote 45: Johnston, _Uganda Protectorate_, i. 610.]

[Footnote 46: Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 287.]

[Footnote 47: Skrzyncki, in _Am Ur-Quell_, v. 208.]

[Footnote 48: von Struve, in _Ausland_, 1880, p. 777.]

[Footnote 49: Steller, _op. cit._ p. 269. _Cf._ Krasheninnikoff, _op. cit._ p. 204.]

[Footnote 50: _Supra_, i. 389 _sq._ (Fijians). Nansen, _First Crossing of Greenland_, ii. 331. Steller, _op. cit._ p. 294 (Kamchadales).]

Whilst in some cases suicide opens the door to a happy land beyond the grave, it in other cases entails consequences of a very different kind. The Omahas believe that a self-murderer ceases to exist.[51] According to the Thompson Indians in British Columbia, "the souls of people who commit suicide do not go to the land of souls. The shamans declare they never saw such people there; and some say that they have looked for the souls of such people, but could not find their tracks. Some shamans say they cannot locate the place where the souls of suicides go, but think they must be lost, because they seem to disappear altogether. Others say that these souls die, and cease to exist. Still others claim that the souls never leave the earth, but wander around aimlessly."[52] So also the Jakuts believe that the ghost of a self-murderer never {237} comes to rest.[53] Sometimes the fate of suicides after death is represented as a punishment which they suffer for their deed. Thus the Dacotahs, among whom women not infrequently put an end to their existence by hanging themselves, are of opinion that suicide is displeasing to the "Father of Life," and will be punished in the land of spirits by the ghost being doomed for ever to drag the tree on which the person hanged herself; hence the women always suspend themselves to as small a tree as can possibly sustain their weight.[54] The Pahárias of the Rájmahal Hills, in India, say that "suicide is a crime in God's eyes," and that "the soul of one who so offends shall not be admitted into heaven, but must hover eternally as a ghost between heaven and earth,"[55] The Kayans of Borneo maintain that self-murderers are sent to a place called _Tan Tekkan_, where they will be very poor and wretched, subsisting on leaves, roots, or anything they can pick up in the forests, and being easily distinguished by their miserable appearance.[56] According to Dyak beliefs, they go to a special place, where those who have drowned themselves must thenceforth live up to their waists in water, and those who have poisoned themselves must live in houses built of poisonous woods and surrounded by noxious plants, the exhalations of which are painful to the spirits.[57] In other instances we are simply told that the souls of suicides, together with those of persons who have been killed in war,[58] or who have died a violent death,[59] are not permitted to live with the rest of the souls, to whom their presence would cause uneasiness. Among the Hidatsa Indians some people say that the ghosts of men {238} who have made away with themselves occupy a separate part of the village of the dead, but that their condition in no other wise differs from that of the other ghosts.[60]

[Footnote 51: La Flesche, 'Death and Funeral Customs among the Omahas,' in _Jour. of American Folk-Lore_, ii. 11.]

[Footnote 52: Teit, 'Thompson Indians of British Columbia,' in _Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History_, Anthropology, i. 358 _sq._]

[Footnote 53: Sumner, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxi. 101.]

[Footnote 54: Bradbury, _Travels in the Interior of America_, p. 89. _Cf._ Keating, _op. cit._ i. 394.]

[Footnote 55: Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 268. _Cf._ Sherwill, 'Tour through the Rájmahal Hills,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xx. 556.]

[Footnote 56: Hose, 'Journey up the Baram River to Mount Dulit and the Highlands of Borneo,' in _Geographical Journal_, i. 199.]

[Footnote 57: Wilken, _Het animisme bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel_, i. 44.]

[Footnote 58: Brebeuf, 'Relation de ce qui s'est passé dans le pays des Hurons,' in _Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p. 104 _sq._ Hewitt, 'The Iroquoian Concept of the Soul,' in _Jour. of American Folk-Lore_, viii. 109.]

[Footnote 59: Steinmetz, in _American Anthropologist_, vii. 58 (Niase).]

[Footnote 60: Matthews, _Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians_, p. 49.]

It is, however, hard to believe that the fate of the self-murderer, whether it be annihilation, a vagrant existence on earth, or separation in the other world, was originally meant as a punishment; for a similar lot is assigned to the souls of persons who have been drowned,[61] or who have died by accident or violence.[62] It seems that the suicide's future state is in the first place supposed to depend upon the treatment of his corpse. Frequently he is denied burial, or at least the ordinary funeral rites,[63] and this may give rise to the notion that his soul never comes to rest or, possibly, even ceases to exist. Or he is buried by himself, apart from the other dead,[64] in which case his soul must naturally remain equally isolated. Among the Alabama Indians, for instance, "when a man kills himself, either in despair or in a sickness, he is deprived of burial, and thrown into the river."[65] In Dahomey "the body of any person committing suicide is not allowed to be buried, but thrown out into the fields to be devoured by wild beasts."[66] Among the Fantis of the Gold Coast "il y a des places réservées aux suicides et à ceux qui sont morts de la petite vérole. Ils sont enterrés à l'écart loin de toute {239} habitation et de tout chemin public."[67] In the Pelew Islands a self-murderer is buried not with his own deceased relatives, but in the place where he ended his life, as are also the corpses of those who fall in war.[68] Among the Bannavs of Cambodia "anyone who perishes by his own hand is buried in a corner of the forest far from the graves of his brethren."[69] Among the Sea Dyaks "those who commit suicide are buried in different places from others, as it is supposed that they will not be allowed to mix in the seven-storied heaven with such of their fellow-country men as come by their death in a natural manner or from the influence of the spirits."[70] The motive for thus treating self-murderers' bodies is superstitious fear. Their ghosts, as the ghosts of persons who have died by any other violent means or by accident, are supposed to be particularly malevolent,[71] owing to their unnatural mode of death[72] or to the desperate or angry state of mind in which they left this life. If they are not buried at all, or if they are buried in the spot where they died or in a separate place, that is either because nobody dares to interfere with them, or in order to prevent them from mixing with the other dead. So also murdered persons are sometimes left unburied,[73] and people who are supposed to have been killed by evil spirits are buried apart;[74] whilst those struck with lightning are either denied interment,[75] or buried where they fell and in the position in which they died.[76] We sometimes hear of a connection between the way in which a suicide's body is treated and the moral opinion as regards his deed. Among the Alabama Indians his corpse {240} is said to be thrown into the river "because he is looked upon as a coward";[77] and of the Ossetes M. Kovalewsky states that they bury suicides far away from other dead persons because they regard their act as sinful.[78] But we may be sure that moral condemnation is not the original cause of these practices.

[Footnote 61: Teit, _loc. cit._ p. 359 (Thompson Indians).]

[Footnote 62: Soppitt, _Kuki-Lushai Tribes_, p. 12. Anderson, _Mandalay to Momien_, p. 146 (Kakhyens). Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 287 (Brazilian Indians). _Supra_, ii. 237. The Central Eskimo believe that all who die by accident or by violence, and women who die in childbirth, are taken to the upper, happier world (Boas, 'Central Eskimo,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ vi. 590). According to the belief of the Behring Strait Eskimo, the shades of shamans, or persons who die by accident, violence, or starvation, go to a land of plenty in the sky, where there is light, food, and water in abundance, whereas the shades of people who die from natural causes go to the underground land of the dead (Nelson, 'Eskimo about Bering Strait,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xviii. 423).]

[Footnote 63: See Lasch, 'Die Behandlung der Leiche des Selbstmorders,' in _Globus_, lxxvi. 63 _sqq._]

[Footnote 64: _Ibid._ p. 65.]

[Footnote 65: Bossu, _Travels through Louisiana_, i. 258.]

[Footnote 66: M'Leod, _Voyage to Africa_, p. 48 _sq._ I am indebted to Mr. N. W. Thomas for drawing my attention to this and a few other statements in the present chapter.]

[Footnote 67: Gallaud, 'A la Côte d'Or,' in _Les missions catholiques_, xxv. 347.]

[Footnote 68: Kubary, in _Original-Mittheil. aus der ethnol. Abtheil. d. königl. Museen zu Berlin_, i. 78.]

[Footnote 69: Comte, quoted by Mouhot, _op. cit._ ii. 28. See also 'Das Volk der Bannar,' in _Mittheil. d. Geogr. Ges. zu Jena_, iii. 9.]

[Footnote 70: St. John, _Life in the Forests of the Far East_, i. 69.]

[Footnote 71: Lasch, in _Globus_, lxxvi. 65. _Cf._ Liebrecht, _Zur Volkskunde_, p. 414 _sq._]

[Footnote 72: Lippert, _Der Seelencult_, p. 11. Kubary, in _Original-Mittheil. aus der ethnol. Abtheil. d. königl. Museen zu Berlin_, i. 78.]

[Footnote 73: Rosenberg, _Der malayische Archipel_, p. 461 (Papuans of Dorey).]

[Footnote 74: Hodson, 'Native Tribes of Manipur,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxi. 305 _sq._]

[Footnote 75: Burton, _Mission to Gelele_, ii. 142 _sq._ (Dahomans).]

[Footnote 76: La Flesche, in _Jour. American Folk-Lore_, ii. 11 (Omahas).]

[Footnote 77: Bossu, _op. cit._ i. 258.]

[Footnote 78: Kovalewsky, _Coutume contemporaine et loi ancienne_, p. 327.]

It is comparatively seldom that savages are reported to attach any stigma to suicide. To the instances mentioned above a few others may be added. The Waganda, we are told, greatly condemn the act.[79] Among the Bogos "a man never despairs, never gives himself up, and considers suicide as the greatest indignity."[80] The Karens of Burma deem it an act of cowardice; but at the same time they have no command against it, they "seem to see little or no guilt in it," and "we are nowhere told that it is displeasing to the God of heaven and earth."[81] The Dacotahs said of a girl who had destroyed herself because her parents had turned her beloved from the wigwam, and would force her to marry a man she hated, that her spirit did not watch over her earthly remains, being offended when she brought trouble upon her aged mother and father.[82] In Dahomey "it is criminal to attempt to commit suicide, because every man is the property of the king. The bodies of suicides are exposed to public execration, and the head is always struck off and sent to Agbomi; at the expense of the family if the suicide were a free man, at that of his master if he were a slave."[83] On the other hand, it is expressly stated of various savages that they do not punish attempts to commit suicide.[84] The negroes of Accra see nothing wrong in the act. "Why," they would ask, "should a person not be {241} allowed to die, when he no longer desires to live?" But they inflict cruel punishments upon slaves who try to put an end to themselves, in order to deter other slaves from doing the same.[85] Among the Pelew Islanders suicide "is neither praised nor blamed."[86] The Eskimo around Northumberland Inlet and Davis Strait believe that any one who has been killed by accident, or who has taken his own life, certainly goes to the happy place after death.[87] The Chippewas hold suicide "to be a foolish, not a reprehensible action," and do not believe it to entail any punishment in the other world.[88] In his sketches of the manners and customs of the North American Indians, Buchanan writes:--"Suicide is not considered by the Indians either as an act of heroism or of cowardice, nor is it with them a subject of praise or blame. They view this desperate act as the consequence of mental derangement, and the person who destroys himself is to them an object of pity."[89]

[Footnote 79: Felkin, in _Proceed. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh_, xiii. 723.]

[Footnote 80: Munzinger, _Die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos_, p. 93.]

[Footnote 81: Mason, in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxxvii. pt. ii. 141.]

[Footnote 82: Eastman, _op. cit._ p. 169.]

[Footnote 83: Ellis, _E[(w]e-speaking Peoples_, p. 224.]

[Footnote 84: Leuschner, in Steinmetz, _Rechtsverhältnisse_, p. 24 (Bakwiri). Nicole, _ibid._ p. 135 (Diakité-Sarracolese). Lang, _ibid._ p. 262 (Washambala). Rautanen, _ibid._ p. 343 (Ondonga). Sorge, _ibid._ p. 421 (Nissan Islanders). Senfft, _ibid._ p. 452 (Marshall Islanders).]

[Footnote 85: Monrad, _op. cit._ pp. 23, 25.]

[Footnote 86: Kubary, in _Original-Mittheil. aus der ethnol. Abtheil. d. königl. Museen zu Berlin_, i. 78.]

[Footnote 87: Hall, _Arctic Researches_, p. 572. _Cf._ _supra_, ii. 238, n. 3.]

[Footnote 88: Keating, _op. cit._ ii. 172.]

[Footnote 89: Buchanan, _Sketches of the History, &c. of the North American Indians_, p. 184.]

From the opinions on suicide held by uncivilised races we shall pass to those prevalent among peoples of a higher culture. In China suicide is extremely common among all classes and among persons of all ages.[90] For those who have been impelled to this course by a sense of honour the gates of heaven open wide, and tablets bearing their names are erected in the temples in honour of virtuous men or women. As honourable self-murderers are regarded servants or officers of state who choose not to survive a defeat in battle or an insult offered to the sovereign of their country; young men who, when an insult has been paid to their parents which they are unable to avenge, prefer not to survive it; and women who kill {242} themselves on the death of their husbands or _fiancés_.[91] In spite of imperial prohibitions, sutteeism of widowed wives and brides has continued to flourish in China down to this day, and meets with the same public applause as ever;[92] whilst those widowed wives and brides who have lost their lives in preserving their chastity, are entitled both to an honorary gate and to a place in a temple of the State as an object of worship.[93] Another common form of suicide which is admired as heroic in China is that committed for the purpose of taking revenge upon an enemy who is otherwise out of reach--according to Chinese ideas a most effective mode of revenge, not only because the law throws the responsibility of the deed on him who occasioned it, but also because the disembodied soul is supposed to be better able than the living man to persecute the enemy.[94] The Chinese have a firm belief in the wandering spirits of persons who have died by violence; thus self-murderers are supposed to haunt the places where they committed the fatal deed and endeavour to persuade others to follow their example, at times even attempting to play executioner by strangling those who reject their advances.[95] "Violent deaths," says Mr. Giles, "are regarded with horror by the Chinese";[96] and suicides committed from meaner motives are reprobated.[97] It is said in the Yü Li, or "Divine Panorama"--a Taouist work which is very popular all over the Chinese Empire--that whilst persons who kill themselves out of loyalty, filial piety, chastity, or friendship, will go to heaven, those who do so "in a trivial burst of rage, or fearing the consequences of a crime which would not amount to death, or in the hope of falsely injuring a {243} fellow-creature," will be severely punished in the infernal regions.[98] No pardon will be granted them; they are not, like other sinners, allowed to claim their good works as a set-off against evil, whereby they might partly escape the agonies of hell and receive some reward for their virtuous deeds.[99] Sometimes suicide is classified by the Chinese as an offence against religion, on the ground that a person owes his being to Heaven, and is therefore responsible to Heaven for due care of the gift.[100]

[Footnote 90: Gray, _China_, i. 329. Huc, _The Chinese Empire_, p. 181. Matignon, 'Le suicide en Chine,' in _Archives d'anthropologie criminelle_, xii. 367 _sqq._ Cathonay, 'Aux environs de Foutchéon,' in _Les missions catholiques_, xxxi. 341 _sq._ Ball, _Things Chinese_, p. 564 _sqq._]

[Footnote 91: Gray, _op. cit._ i. 337 _sqq._]

[Footnote 92: de Groot, _Religious System of China_, (vol. ii. book) i. 748. Ball, _op. cit._ p. 565. Cathonay, in _Les missions catholiques_, xxxi. 341.]

[Footnote 93: de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. ii. book) i. 792.]

[Footnote 94: Huc, _op. cit._ p. 181. Matignon, in _Archives d'anthropologie criminelle_, xii. 371 _sqq._ de Groot, _op. cit._ (vol. iv. book) ii. 450 _sq._ Cathonay, in _Les missions catholiques_, xxxi. 341 _sq._ Ball, _op. cit._ p. 566 _sq._]

[Footnote 95: Davis, _China_, ii. 94. Dennys, _Folk-Lore of China_, p. 74 _sq._]

[Footnote 96: Giles, _Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio_, ii. 363, n. 9.]

[Footnote 97: Gray, _op. cit._ i. 337.]

[Footnote 98: Giles, _op. cit._ ii. 365.]

[Footnote 99: _Ibid._ ii. 363.]

[Footnote 100: Alabaster, _Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law_, p. 304.]

"The Japanese calendar of saints," says Mr. Griffis, "is not filled with reformers, alms-givers, and founders of hospitals or orphanages, but is overcrowded with canonised suicides and committers of _harakiri_. Even to-day, no man more . . . surely draws homage to his tomb, securing even apotheosis, than the suicide, though he may have committed a crime."[101] There were two kinds of _harakiri_, or "belly-cutting," one obligatory and the other voluntary. The former was a boon granted by government, who graciously permitted criminals of the Samurai, or military, class thus to destroy themselves instead of being handed over to the common executioner; but this custom is now quite extinct. Voluntary _harakiri_, again, was practised out of loyalty to a dead superior, or in order to protest, when other protests might be unavailing, against the erroneous conduct of a living superior, or to avoid beheading by the enemy in a lost battle, or to restore injured honour if revenge was impossible. Under any circumstances _harakiri_ cleansed from every stain, and ensured an honourable interment and a respected memory.[102] It is said in a Japanese manuscript, "To slay his enemy against whom he has cause of hatred, and then to kill himself, is the part of a noble Samurai, and it is sheer nonsense to look upon the place where he has disembowelled {244} himself as polluted."[103] In old days the ceremony used to be performed in a temple.[104]

[Footnote 101: Griffis, _Religions of Japan_, p. 112.]

[Footnote 102: Chamberlain, _Things Japanese_, p. 219 _sqq._ Rein, _Japan_, p. 328. Kühne, in _Globus_, lxxiv. 166 _sq._ A very full account of the ceremony of _harakiri_ is given in Mitford's _Tales of Old Japan_, ii. 193 _sqq._, from a rare Japanese manuscript.]

[Footnote 103: Mitford, _op. cit._ ii. 201.]

[Footnote 104: _Ibid._ ii. 196.]

Among the Hindus we meet with the practice of self-immolation of widows--until recently very prevalent in many parts of India[105]--and various forms of self-destruction for religious purposes. Suicide has always been considered by the Hindus to be one of the most acceptable rites that can be offered to their deities. According to the Ayen Akbery, there were five kinds of suicide held to be meritorious in the Hindu, namely:--starving; covering himself with cow-dung and setting it on fire and consuming himself therein; burying himself in snow; immersing himself in the water at the extremity of Bengal, where the Ganges discharges itself into the sea through a thousand channels, enumerating his sins, and praying till the alligators come and devour him; cutting his throat at Allahabad, at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna.[106] To these might be added drowning at Hurdwar, Allahabad, and Saugor; perishing in the cold of the Himalayas; the practice of dying under the wheels of Juggurnath's car;[107] and the custom of men throwing themselves down from certain rocks to fulfil the vows of their mothers, or to receive forgiveness for sins, or to be re-born rajas in their next state of transmigration.[108] It is also common for persons who are afflicted with leprosy or any other incurable disease to bury or drown themselves with due ceremonies, by which they are considered acceptable sacrifices to the deity,[109] or to roll themselves into fires with the notion that thus purified they will receive a happy transmigration into a healthy body.[110] Suicide was further {245} resorted to by Brâhmans for the purpose of avenging an injury, as it was believed that the ghost of the deceased would persecute the offender, and, presumably, also because of the great efficacy which was attributed to the curse of a dying Brâhman.[111] When one of the Rajput rajas once levied a war-subsidy on the Brâhmans, some of the wealthiest, having expostulated in vain, poniarded themselves in his presence, pouring maledictions on his head with their last breath; and thus cursed, the raja laboured under a ban of excommunication even amongst his personal friends.[112] We are told of a Brâhman girl who, having been seduced by a certain raja, burned herself to death, and in dying imprecated the most fearful curses on the raja's kindred, after which they were visited with such a succession of disasters that they abandoned their family settlement at Baliya, where the woman's tomb is worshipped to this day.[113] Once when a raja ordered the house of a Brâhman to be demolished and resumed the lands which had been conferred upon him, the latter fasted till he died at the palace gate, and became thus a Brahm, or malignant Brâhman ghost, who avenged the injury he had suffered by destroying the raja and his house.[114] At Azimghur, in 1835, a Brâhman "threw himself down a well, that his ghost might haunt his neighbour."[115] The same idea undoubtedly underlies the custom of "sitting _dharna_" which was practised by creditors who sat down before the doors of their debtors threatening to starve themselves to death if their claims were not paid;[116] and the sin attached to causing the death of a Brâhman would further increase the efficacy of the creditor's threats.[117] At the same time religious suicide is said to be a crime in a Brâhman.[118] And in the sacred books we read that for him who destroys {246} himself by means of wood, water, clods of earth, stones, weapons, poison, or a rope, no funeral rites shall be performed by his relatives;[119] that he who resolves to die by his own hand shall fast for three days; and that he who attempts suicide, but remains alive, shall perform severe penance.[120] The Buddhists allow a man under certain circumstances to take his own life, but maintain that generally dire miseries are in store for the self-murderer, and look upon him as one who must have sinned deeply in a former state of existence.[121] It should be added that in India, as elsewhere, the souls of those who have killed themselves or met death by any other violent means are regarded as particularly malevolent and troublesome.[122]

[Footnote 105: Malcolm, _Memoir of Central India_, ii. 206 _sqq._ Chevers, _Manual of Medical Jurisprudence for India_, p. 665. _Cf._ _supra_, i. 473 _sq._ Sir John Malcolm observes (_op. cit._ ii. 206, n. [double dagger]) that the practice of suttee was not always confined to widows, but that sometimes mothers burned themselves on the death of their only sons.]

[Footnote 106: Chevers, _op. cit._ p. 664. _Cf._ _Laws of Manu_, vi. 31.]

[Footnote 107: _Ibid._ p. 664. Ward, _View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos_, ii. 115 _sqq._ Rájendralála Mitra, _Indo-Aryans_, ii. 70.]

[Footnote 108: Sleeman, _Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official_, i. 132 _sq._ Malcolm, _Memoir of Central India_, ii. 209 _sqq._ Forsyth, _Highlands of Central India_, p. 172 _sq._]

[Footnote 109: Sleeman, _op. cit._ ii. 344 _sq._]

[Footnote 110: Ward, _op. cit._ ii. 119.]

[Footnote 111: Chevers, _op. cit._ p. 659 _sqq._ Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India_, i. 191 _sqq._ van Mökern, _Ostindien_, i. 319 _sqq._]

[Footnote 112: Tod, quoted by Chevers, _op. cit._ p. 659 _sq._]

[Footnote 113: Crooke, _op. cit._ i. 193.]

[Footnote 114: _Ibid._ i. 191 _sq._]

[Footnote 115: Chevers, _op. cit._ p. 663.]

[Footnote 116: _Cf._ Steinmetz, 'Gli antichi scongiuri giuridici contro i creditori,' in _Rivista italiana di sociologia_, ii. 58. For the practice of _dharna_ see _ibid._ p. 37 _sqq._; Balfour, _Cyclopædia of India_, i. 934 _sq._; van Mökern, _op. cit._ i. 322 _sq._]

[Footnote 117: _Cf._ Jones, quoted by Balfour, _op. cit._ i. 935.]

[Footnote 118: Ward, _op. cit._ ii. 115. Forsyth, _op. cit._ p. 173.]

[Footnote 119: _Vasishtha_, xxiii. 14 _sq._]

[Footnote 120: _Ibid._ xxiii. 18 _sqq._]

[Footnote 121: Hardy, _Manual of Budhism_, p. 479.]

[Footnote 122: Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India_, i. 269. Fawcett, 'Nâyars of Malabar,' in the Madras Government Museum's _Bulletin_, iii. 253.]

The Old Testament mentions a few cases of suicide.[123] In none of them is any censure passed on the perpetrator of the deed, nor is there any text which expressly forbids a man to die by his own hand; and of Ahithophel it is said that he was buried in the sepulchre of his father.[124] It seems, however, that according to Jewish custom persons who had killed themselves should be left unburied till sunset,[125] perhaps for fear lest the spirit of the deceased otherwise might find its way back to the old home.[126] Josephus, who mentions this custom, denounces suicide as an act of cowardice, as a crime most remote from the common nature of all animals, as impiety against the Creator; and he maintains that the souls of those who have thus acted madly against themselves will go to the darkest place in Hades.[127] The Talmud considers suicide justifiable, if not meritorious, in the case of the chief of a vanquished army who is sure of disgrace and death at the hands of the exulting conqueror,[128] or when a person has {247} reason to fear being forced to renounce his religion.[129] In all other circumstances the Rabbis consider it criminal for a person to shorten his own life, even when he is undergoing tortures which must soon end his earthly career;[130] and they forbid all marks of mourning for a self-murderer, such as wearing sombre apparel and eulogising him.[131] Islam prohibits suicide, as an act which interferes with the decrees of God.[132] Muhammedans say that it is a greater sin for a person to kill himself than to kill a fellow-man;[133] and, as a matter of fact, suicide is very rare in the Moslem world.[134]

[Footnote 123: _1 Samuel_, xxxi. 4 _sq._ _2 Samuel_, xvii. 23. _1 Kings_, xvi. 18. _2 Maccabees_, xiv. 4 _sqq._]

[Footnote 124: _2 Samuel_, xvii. 23.]

[Footnote 125: Josephus, _De bello Judaico_, iii. 8. 5.]

[Footnote 126: _Cf._ Frazer, 'Burial Customs as illustrative of the Primitive Theory of the Soul,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xv. 72.]

[Footnote 127: Josephus, _op. cit._ iii. 8. 5.]

[Footnote 128: _Cf._ _1 Samuel_, xxxi. 4.]

[Footnote 129: _Guittin_, 57 B, quoted by Mendelsohn, _Criminal Jurisprudence of the Ancient Hebrews_, p. 77, n. 163. _Cf._ _2 Maccabees_, xiv. 37 _sqq._]

[Footnote 130: _Ab Zara_, 18 A, quoted by Mendelsohn, _op. cit._ p. 78, n. 163.]

[Footnote 131: Mendelsohn, _op. cit._ p. 77.]

[Footnote 132: _Koran_, iv. 33.]

[Footnote 133: I have often heard this myself. _Cf._ Westcott, _Suicide_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 134: Lisle, _Du suicide_, pp. 305, 345 _sq._ Legoyt, _Le suicide ancien et moderne_, p. 7. Morselli, _Il suicidio_, p. 33. Westcott, _op. cit._ p. 12.]

Ancient Greece had its honourable suicides. The Milesian and Corinthian women, who by a voluntary death escaped from falling into the hands of the enemy, were praised in epigrams.[135] The story that Themistocles preferred death to bearing arms against his native country was circulated with a view to doing honour to his memory.[136] The tragedians frequently give expression to the idea that suicide is in certain circumstances becoming to a noble mind.[137] Hecuba blames Helena for not putting an end to her life by a rope or a sword.[138] Phaedra[139] and Leda[140] kill themselves out of shame, Haemon from violent remorse.[141] Ajax decides to die after having in vain attempted to kill the Atreidae, maintaining that "one of generous strain should nobly live, or forthwith nobly die."[142] Instances are, moreover, mentioned of women killing themselves on the death of their husbands;[143] and in Cheos it was the custom to prevent {248} the decrepitude of old age by a voluntary death.[144] At Athens the right hand of a person who had taken his own life was struck off and buried apart from the rest of the body,[145] evidently in order to make him harmless after death.[146] Plato says in his 'Laws,' probably in agreement with Attic custom, that those who inflict death upon themselves "from sloth or want of manliness," shall be buried alone in such places as are uncultivated and nameless, and that no column or inscription shall mark the spot where they are interred.[147] At Thebes self-murderers were deprived of the accustomed funeral ceremonies,[148] and in Cyprus they were left unburied.[149] The objections which philosophers raised against the commission of suicide were no doubt to some extent shared by popular sentiments. Pythagoras is represented as saying that we should not abandon our station in life without the orders of our commander, that is, God.[150] According to the Platonic Socrates, the gods are our guardians and we are a possession of theirs, hence "there may be reason in saying that a man should wait, and not take his own life until God summons him."[151] Aristotle, again, maintains that he who from rage kills himself commits a wrong against the State, and that therefore the State punishes him and civil infamy is attached to him.[152] The religious argument could not be foreign to a people who regarded it as impious interference in the order of nature to make a bridge over the Hellespont and to separate a landscape from the continent;[153] and the idea that suicide is a matter of public concern evidently prevailed in Massilia, where no man was allowed to make away with himself unless the magistrates had given him permission to do so.[154] But the {249} opinions of the philosophers were anything but unanimous.[155] Plato himself, in his 'Laws,' has no word of censure for him who deprives himself by violence of his appointed share of life under the compulsion of some painful and inevitable misfortune, or out of irremediable and intolerable shame.[156] Hegesias, surnamed the "death-persuader," who belonged to the Cyrenaic school, tried to prove the utter worthlessness and unprofitableness of life.[157] According to Epicurus we ought to consider "whether it be better that death should come to us, or we go to him."[158] The Stoics, especially, advocated suicide as a relief from all kinds of misery.[159] Seneca remarks that it is a man's own fault if he suffers, as, by putting an end to himself, he can put an end to his misery:--"As I would choose a ship to sail in, or a house to live in, so would I choose the most tolerable death when about to die. . . . Human affairs are in such a happy situation, that no one need be wretched but by choice. Do you like to be wretched? Live. Do you like it not? It is in your power to return from whence you came."[160] The Stoics did not deny that it is wrong to commit suicide in cases where the act would be an injury to society;[161] Seneca himself points out that Socrates lived thirty days in prison in expectation of death, so as to submit to the laws of his country, and to give his friends the enjoyment of his conversation to the last.[162] Epictetus opposes indiscriminate suicide on religious grounds:--"Friends, wait for God; when he shall give the signal and release you from this service, then go to him; but for the present endure to dwell in the place where he has put you."[163] Such a signal, however, is given often enough: it may consist in incurable disease, intolerable pain, or misery of any kind. "Remember this: the door is open; be not more timid {250} than little children, but as they say, when the thing does not please them, 'I will play no longer,' so do you, when things seem to you of such a kind, say I will no longer play, and be gone: but if you stay, do not complain."[164] Pliny says that the power of dying when you please is the best thing that God has given to man amidst all the sufferings of life.[165]

[Footnote 135: Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_, ii. 443.]

[Footnote 136: Diodorus Siculus, _Bibliotheca historica_, xi. 58. 2 _sq._]

[Footnote 137: See Schmidt, _op. cit._ ii. 442 _sqq._]

[Footnote 138: Euripides, _Troades_, 1012 _sqq._]

[Footnote 139: _Idem_, _Hippolytus_, 715 _sqq._]

[Footnote 140: _Idem_, _Helena_, 134 _sqq._]

[Footnote 141: Sophocles, _Antigone_, 1234 _sqq._]

[Footnote 142: _Idem_, _Ajax_, 470 _sqq._ _Cf._ _ibid._ 654 _sqq._]

[Footnote 143: Euripides, _Supplices_, 1000 _sqq._ Pausanias, iv. 2. 7.]

[Footnote 144: Strabo, _Geographica_, x. 5. 6, p. 486. Aelian, _Varia historia_, iii. 37. _Cf._ Boeckh, _Gesammelte kleine Schriften_, vii. 345 _sqq._; Welcker, _Kleine Schriften_, ii. 502 _sq._]

[Footnote 145: Aeschines, _In Ctesiphontem_, 244.]

[Footnote 146: Some Australian natives cut off the thumb of the right hand of a dead foe in order to make his spirit unable to throw the spear efficiently (Oldfield, in _Trans. Ethn. Soc._ N.S. iii. 287).]

[Footnote 147: Plato, _Leges_, ix. 873.]

[Footnote 148: Schmidt, _op. cit._ ii. 104.]

[Footnote 149: Dio Chrysostom, _Orationes_, lxiv. 3.]

[Footnote 150: Cicero, _Cato Major_, 20 (73).]

[Footnote 151: Plato, _**Phædo_, p. 62.]

[Footnote 152: Aristotle, _Ethica Nicomachea_, v. 11. 3.]

[Footnote 153: See Schmidt, _op. cit._ ii. 83, 441; Rohde, _Psyche_, p. 202, n. 1.]

[Footnote 154: Valerius Maximus, _Factorum dictorumque memorabilia_, ii. 6. 7.]

[Footnote 155: See Geiger, _Der Selbstmord im klassischen Altertum_, p. 5 _sqq._]

[Footnote 156: Plato, _Leges_, ix. 873.]

[Footnote 157: Cicero, _Tusculanæ quæstiones_, i. 34 (83 _sq._). Valerius Maximus, viii. 9. Externa 3.]

[Footnote 158: Epicurus, quoted by Seneca, _Epistulæ_, 26.]

[Footnote 159: See Geiger, _op. cit._ p. 15 _sqq._]

[Footnote 160: Seneca, _Epistulæ_, 70. See also _Idem_, _De ira_, iii. 15; _Idem_, _Consolatia ad Marciam_, 20.]

[Footnote 161: Lecky, _History of European Morals_, i. 214, n. 1.]

[Footnote 162: Seneca, _Epistulæ_, 70.]

[Footnote 163: Epictetus, _Dissertationes_, i. 9. 16.]

[Footnote 164: _Ibid._ i. 24. 20; i. 25. 20 _sq._; ii. 16. 37 _sqq._; iii. 13. 14; iii. 24. 95 _sqq._]

[Footnote 165: Pliny, _Historia naturalis_, ii. 5 (7).]

It seems that the Roman people, before the influence of Christianity made itself felt, regarded suicide with considerable moral indifference. According to Servius, it was provided by the Pontifical laws that whoever hanged himself should be cast out unburied;[166] but from what has been said before it is probable that this practice only owed its origin to fear of the dead man's ghost. Vergil enumerates self-murderers not among the guilty, but among the unfortunate, confounding them with infants who have died prematurely and persons who have been condemned to die on a false charge.[167] Throughout the whole history of pagan Rome there was no statute declaring it to be a crime for an ordinary citizen to take his own life. The self-murderer's rights were in no way affected by his deed, his memory was no less honoured than if he had died a natural death, his will was recognised by law, and the regular order of succession was not interfered with.[168] In Roman law there are only two noteworthy exceptions to the rule that suicide is a matter with which the State has nothing to do: it was prohibited in the case of soldiers,[169] and the enactment was made that the suicide of an accused person should entail the same consequences as his condemnation; but in the latter instance the deed was admitted as a confession of guilt.[170] On the other {251} hand, it seems to have been the general opinion in Rome that suicide under certain circumstances is an heroic and praiseworthy act.[171] Even Cicero, who professed the doctrine of Pythagoras,[172] approved of the death of Cato.[173]

[Footnote 166: Servius, _Commentarii in Virgilii Æneidos_, xii. 603.]

[Footnote 167: Vergil, _Æneis_, vi. 426 _sqq._]

[Footnote 168: Bourquelot, 'Recherches sur les opinions et la législation en matière de mort volontaire pendant le moyen age,' in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, iii. 544. Geiger, _op. cit._ p. 64 _sqq._ Bynkershoek, _Observationes Juris Romani_, iv. 4, p. 350.]

[Footnote 169: _Digesta_, xlix. 16. 6. 7.]

[Footnote 170: _Ibid._ xlviii. 21. 3 pr. _Cf._ Bourquelot, _op. cit._ iii. 543 sq.; Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, v. 326; Lecky, _History of European Morals_, i. 219.]

[Footnote 171: Stäudlin, _Geschichte der Vorstellungen und Lehren vom Selbstmorde_, p. 62 _sq._]

[Footnote 172: Cicero, _Cato Major_, 20 (72 _sq._).]

[Footnote 173: _Idem_, _De officiis_, i. 31 (112).]