outlook is that the brutalities formerly so prevalent have vanished, never

to return.

In the northern States of Africa, especially in Morocco, the most sanguinary customs are characteristic of Mohammedan warfare. An incident recently reported in the London papers

African warfare.

gives an insight into the ghastly realities of war in Sanguinary customs in that section. A telegram announced the arrival at Fez of a large consignment of salted heads that

were being transported from Morocco as trophies of a recent victory. It is even considered a merciful proceeding by the fierce soldiery of Morocco to bury their wounded comrades before life is extinct, so that the enemy may have no opportunity of mutilating their bodies.1 In the recent Italian campaign with Abyssinia the hands and feet of the wounded were cut off by the enemy on the field of battle, and they were left to the mercy of the vultures. In the interior of the Continent and along the West Coast there is nothing more terrible than the scenes of harrowing atrocity which have been and are still incidental to barbarous strife.3 As we move southward there is nothing to relieve the dark shadows of brutal warfare. It is a carnival of cruelty and beastly savagery. The last journal of Livingstone contains an account of a massacre so terrible in its atrocity that it seems to have made an overwhelming impression upon his mind. The well-known reputation of the Matabele warrior has been often referred to.5 In the recent French war in Madagascar even a civilized nation seems to have been deeply compromised by the adoption of barbarous methods of warfare. The

1 Regions Beyond, November, 1894, p. 369. 2 The Literary Digest, May 30, 1896.

3 Arnot, "Garenganze," pp. 77, 78, 92; The Missionary Record, October, 1893, p. 286.

♦ Blaikie, "Life of David Livingstone," pp. 427, 428.

5 "In war the Matabele were very cruel. They surrounded the towns against which they were fighting, in the early morning, set fire to the huts, and slaughtered indiscriminately, sparing only the boys and girls who could be used as slaves. Sometimes they made prisoners, and some of these were put to death with great cruelty, dried grass being wrapped round them and set on fire. In one instance at least they caught a lot of women, made them carry the spoil to the border of the country, and then in cold blood murdered them all. Children are snatched out of their mothers' arms and impaled on the assegai, sometimes caught by the heels and their heads smashed on the rocks. Others have been tied to poles and roasted to death. I have not seen these things done, but have been told of them by Matabele themselves.". Rev. Charles D. Helm (L. M. S.), Hope Fountain, Matabeleland, Africa.

Cf. Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," pp. 183, 184; Hepburn, "Twenty Years in Khama's Country," p. 248.

alliance of the bloodthirsty Sakalava with the French resulted in indiscriminate massacres of women and children who fell into their hands. In one case, writes the correspondent of the London Times, "there can be no doubt that the Sakalava, who are well armed, murdered four hundred women and children."

The savage races of the Pacific are not a whit less cruel than their fellow-barbarians of the Dark Continent. In New Guinea, the New Hebrides, and throughout the island realms of the South Seas, the ferocity of savage warfare has been illustrated for unknown generations. Happily, the encroachments of civilization, the spiritual victories of missions, and the extension of foreign authority over so many island groups of Oceania are influences which have greatly restrained the barbarities that have prevailed in the past.

8. BLOOD FEUDS.-War is not confined to nations and tribes alone, but sometimes occurs between clans, communities, villages, families, and even individuals, who engage in a kind of mimic warfare under the name of blood feuds. These have frequently resulted in serious and desperate conflicts prolonged for generations and involving intense bitterness of feeling, with vindictive reprisals and cruel atrocities. The causes of strife may differ; in some instances it may spring from religious hatred, in others it may result from trespass and violence, and at times it is the outcome of family intrigue, jealousy, and enmity.

The prevalence and bitterness of blood feuds

Continent.

The Continent of Africa is all astir with these virulent feuds; tribes, communities, and families are in numberless instances pitted against one another in irreconcilable strife. Now it is a feud between neighboring villages, which means throughout the African indiscriminate war to the knife between entire communities; now it is a quarrel over boundary lines, or a raid for plunder or retaliation for trespass and murder, or the avenging of some insult which cannot be passed unnoticed. A constant state of anarchy and bloody hostility is thus kept up among neighboring clans and communities. "When the Word of God came among us," said a Kaffir chief in 1836, we were like the wild beasts; we knew nothing-nothing but war and bloodshed. Every one was against his neighbor, every man tried to destroy his brother." 1 Dr. Moffat has given vivid descriptions of the desperate character of the tribal feuds which he found prevailing in South Africa. Lust, revenge, and rapine were continually on the war-path. Throughout the length and breadth 1 Slowan, "The Story of Our Kaffrarian Mission," p. 109.

of Zambesia raids and counter-raids, attended with savage barbarities, always have been, and, where opportunity offers, are still, the constant occupation of hostile tribes.1 The popular theory of punishment or revenge in Africa is not to seek out the guilty and inflict upon them the penalty; it is to strike an indiscriminate blow at the entire community or tribe to whom the offender belongs. Vengeance is sweet to the native African, and under some circumstances it becomes, according to his social code, an imperative duty.2

Sectional feuds in Turkey, Persia, and India.

In Turkey and Persia, where national and religious distinctions honeycomb society, there is hardly a village which is not ready for sectional strife upon the slightest provocation. The horrors in Armenia show the fearful excesses to which religious and political hostility, when once aroused, will lead. The Kurd, who is facile princeps in his fiendishness, not only delights in barbarities upon Christians, but is often at war with his own people in local feuds.3

1 Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," p. 183. Cf. Johnston, "Missionary Landscapes in the Dark Continent," p. 138.

2 " Love, forgiveness—these are things which the Pahouins cannot understand, nay, which even scandalize them," writes M. Allegret, from his station at Talagouga, in the French Congo. "They cannot understand renouncing a vengeance, and when a hostile village kills one of their people, it is not the death of their relation or their friend which they feel the most, but the insult which they have received. The father of one of our pupils came one day to ask that he might have his boy back for a time, for, said he, ‘I am growing old, and before I die I should like to tell him all about our quarrels, that he may know who they are who owe us corpses.' To forgive a relation some little things, that may be allowed, but, to forgive an enemy, what madness!"-Quoted from the Journal des Missions Evangéliques, in The Missionary Record, October, 1895, p. 294.

"From time immemorial the Gallas have been warriors, ready to use their spears on slight provocation, and delighting in the intertribal warfare which so many of the African race regard as a pastime. War has been constantly denounced by the missionaries, its sin as well as its folly indicated,—and twice within the past two years I have been able to dissuade the warriors from retaliatory expeditions against the Somalis."-Rev. R. M. Ormerod (U. M. F. M. S.), Golbanti, Tana River, East

Africa.

3 "As to blood feuds, our mountain field is full of them. It is safe to say that no man of distinction can travel freely through the different mountain provinces, and until vengeance is taken any man, of whatever social standing, may be involved. This is one of the great hindrances to our school work. It is at times extremely difficult, and always difficult to some degree, for the boys and girls to pass through these provinces on their way to us."-Miss Anna Melton (P. B. F. M. N.), Mosul, Turkey.

"Blood feuds between Kurdish tribes and neighborhoods are common. C. Raynolds, M.D. (A. B. C. F. M.), Van, Turkey.

."-George

In India there is perpetual hostility between Hindus and Moslems, resulting in feuds which are handed down with religious fidelity from generation to generation, and are always ready to break out into bloody violence if some trifling cause awakens the spirit of strife. Among the wild tribes of the mountains trial by combat is a favorite method of settling disputes, while their blood feuds are transmitted as a sacred inheritance from father to son. The unforgiving character of the Hindus makes them cling tenaciously to the hope of revenge, and wait patiently and long for their opportunity. In Assam murder is regarded as a social accomplishment. "No young Naga," remarks The Indian Witness, "is considered a man unless his hands have been imbrued in the blood of his fellow-man, whether in war or in cold blood makes no difference." In Burma the war of clans and even smaller communities has been common.2

Village feuds in China.

China is a network of clans ready to engage in hostile strife upon the slightest provocation. Massacre and bloodshed are the usual result of these conflicts. Village feuds are common among the Chinese. If they do not result in actual bloodshed they are sure to develop a system of petty trespass and the destruction of the property, especially the crops, of the village. In Formosa fierce and sanguinary warfare, lasting sometimes for half a century, has attended these feuds among savage tribes. The practice of head-hunting may be traced back to these village and tribal wars. The Chinese in Formosa are especially the objects of hatred, and the head of a Chinaman is a trophy highly prized. "No savage is esteemed," says Dr. Williams, "who

1 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 410.

2" Cut up into tribes and clans, they were always at war with one another; that is, tribe with tribe, clan with clan, and often village with village. Their quarrels almost always took the form of feuds, blood feuds, and in their wars the women and children suffered terribly. The object of these feuds was to seize as much property and as many captives as possible. These captives were held for ransom, and were cared for only to save their lives for that purpose. I never saw in these warriors any impulse of pity or compassion, though there were doubtless cases. The greed for gain seemed to hide all else."-Rev. Alonzo Bunker, D.D. (A. B. M. U.), Toungoo, Burma.

3 MacKay, "From Far Formosa," p. 222.

▲ "The bringing back of the head was regarded as satisfactory evidence, a kind of medical certificate that the sentence of the tribe had been carried out. When hostilities became fixed and certain tribes or races were regarded as unforgivable enemies, a premium was put upon their heads, and the brave who showed most skill was counted worthy of greatest honor and made head man of his village or chief of his tribe."-Ibid., p. 268.

1

has not beheaded a Chinaman, while the greater the number of heads brought home from a fray the higher the position of a brave in the community." The traditions of Japan are full of reports of conflicts between the old feudal lords and their retainers, but in the present new era of advancing civilization and national reconstruction these petty strifes have almost entirely disappeared. A characteristic sight in Korea, usually in connection with the advent of the new year, is a promiscuous battle with clubs and stones between neighboring villages. It is often in sport, but in many instances it becomes a veritable mimic war.2

In New Guinea and throughout Oceania turmoil and strife are commonplace features of savage life. "Blood for blood is a sacred law almost of nature wherever Christianity has not

Pacific Islands.

prevailed." Trespass or violence on the part of Intertribal feuds in the any member of a tribe is regarded as fastening the guilt upon the entire tribe, and thus indiscriminate. bloodshed follows. The sounds of savage warfare have echoed among the islands of the Pacific for unknown generations, and where the happier arts of peace now prevail they are almost entirely the result of Christian missionary teaching and influence. If we penetrate in almost any direction into the comparatively unknown and inaccessible recesses of heathenism we will find the same shocking story of blood feuds and perpetual outbursts of sanguinary hostility. An officer of a prominent trading company who has lived long among the Eskimos. has given it as his opinion that "he did not think there was a single

1 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p. 138.

2 Gilmore, "Korea from its Capital," pp. 173, 176. Cf. Savage-Landor, "Corea," p. 268, and The Missionary, May, 1895, p. 200.

3 "The natives of the New Hebrides, especially those in the same island, in heathen days had feuds, which multiplied as the earlier inhabitants increased, and were passed down from one generation to another. These feuds tended to separate the natives still further, and indeed formed by far the most powerful factor in breaking them up into so many tribes; for since Christianity has driven out heathenism, the mountain barriers and the different languages have not prevented the tribes from communicating with each other. So great was the influence exerted by the feuds and wars among the natives in separating tribe from tribe that frequently, especially in Tanna, they could not, without danger to life, walk beyond a few miles from their own homes. Revenge was carried from generation to generation. Every injury, supposed or real, was avenged. Reviling was followed by reviling, blow by blow, theft avenged by theft. The injured wife revenged the act of an unfaithful husband by herself being unfaithful to him. Life taken away was only repaid by taking away another life, if not that of the murderer, at any rate that of one of his tribe."-Rev. William Gunn, M.D. (F. C. S.), Futuna, New Hebrides.