CHAPTER X - THE MAINTENANCE OF LAW AND ORDER: FIGHTING, FIGHTING WEAPONS

Summary

238. The Maintenance of Law and Order: Methods of Fighting.—Among the Pitta-Pitta and other tribes of the Boulia District, the paucity of old men whose opinions and wishes would otherwise be respected and enforced, is very marked. Each individual, within certain limits, can do what he pleases. On the other hand, he has to reckon not only with the particular person injured, or his relatives, but also, in some cases, with the whole camp collectively. Thus the camp as a body, as a camp council, will take upon itself to mete out punishment in crimes of murder, incest, or the promiscuous use of fighting-implements within the precincts of the camping-ground: death, and probably the digging of his own grave, awaita the delinquent in the former case, while “crippling,” generally with knives, constitutes the penalty for a violation of the latter. Private quarrels are arranged and settled somewhat on the following lines:—Supposing an individual considers himself aggrieved, an animated conversation ensues between the parties concerned, obscene language is freely used (sect. 333), the hand goes up to the mouth in the customary manner (sects. 103, 104), and all of a sudden, probably a boomerang is let fly, to be followed or replied by another or similar implement. Mutual friends, or their gins, will, in nine case out of ten, nest intervene, and make an attempt at separating the pair: otherwise, they will each run for the nearest spear or anything handy, and throw it.