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lect05-第5部分
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which I am about to read to you may serve to illustrate what
probably took place; though there is nothing except common
humanity to connect the tribes of whose customs it speaks with
the primitive Teutons and Celts。 The Rev H。 Dugmore; in a most
interesting volume; called a 'Compendium of Kafir Laws and
Customs;' and published at the Wesleyan Missionary Press; Mount
Coke; British Kaffraria; writes thus of much the most advanced of
the South African native races; the Kafirs or Zulus (p。 27): 'As
cattle constitute the sole wealth of the people; so they are
their only medium of such transactions as involve exchange;
payment; or reward。 The retainers of a chief serve him for
cattle; nor is it expected that he could maintain his influence;
or indeed secure any number of followers; if unable to provide
them with what at once constitutes their money; food; and
clothing。 He requires; then; a constant fund from which to
satisfy his dependants; and the amount of the fund required may
be judged of from the character of the demand made upon him。 His
retinue; court; or whatever it is to be called; consists of men
from all parts of the tribe; the young; the clever; and the
brave; who come to do court service for a time; that they may
obtain cattle to furnish them with the means of procuring wives;
arms; or other objects of desire。 On obtaining these they return
to their homes and give place to others。 Thus the immediate
retinue of a chief is continually changing; and constitutes a
permanent drain on his resources。' Mr Dugmore goes on to state
that the sources of the chief's wealth are the inherited cattle
of his father; offerings made to him on the ceremony of his
circumcision; benevolences levied from his tribe; fines and
confiscations; and the results of predatory excursions。
The remarkable part played by kine in ancient Irish society
will; I hope; be made more intelligible in the next Lecture。
Meantime; let me observe that the two Celtic societies included
in these islands which longest retained their ancient usages were
both notoriously given to the plunder of cattle。 Lord Macaulay;
in speaking of Irish cattle…stealing; sometimes; I must own;
seems to me to express himself as if he thought the practice
attributable to some native vice of Irish character; but no doubt
it was what Mr Tylor has taught us to call a survival; an ancient
and inveterate habit; which in this case continued through the
misfortune which denied to Ireland the great condition of modern
legal ideas; a strong central government。 The very same practice;
among the Celts of the Scottish Highlands and the rude Germanic
population of the Lowland Border; has almost been invested by one
man's genius with the dignity of a virtue。 Again; turning to
'Waverley;' I suppose there is no truer representative of the
primitive Celtic chief than Donald Bean Lean; who drives the
cattle of Tully Veolan; and employs a soothsayer to predict the
number of beeves which are likely to come in his Way。 He is a far
more genuine 'survival' than Fergus McIvor; who all but deserts
his cause for a disappointment about an earldom。
It has been pointed out that the status of the King's
Companions was at first in some way servile。 Whenever legal
expression has to be given to the relations of the Comitatus to
the Teutonic kings; the portions of the Roman law selected are
uniformly those which declare the semi…servile relation of the
Client or Freedman to his Patron。 The Brehon law permits us to
take the same view of the corresponding class in Celtic
societies。 Several texts indicate that a Chief of high degree is
always expected to surround himself with unfree dependants; and
you will recollect that the retinue of the King of Erin was to
consist not only of free tribesmen but of a bodyguard of men
bound to him by servile obligations。 So far as it goes; I quite
agree with the explanation which Mr Freeman has given of the
original connection between servile status and that nobility with
which the primitive nobility of birth has become mixed up and
confounded。 'The lowly clientage;' he says; 'of the Roman
Patrician and the noble following of the Hellenic and Teutonic
leader may really come from the same source; and may both alike
be parts of the same primeval heritage。' (' Comparative
Politics;' p。 261。) But perhaps we may permit ourselves to go a
step beyond this account。 The Comitatus or Companions of the
Chief; even when they were freemen; were not necessarily Or
ordinarily his near kindred。 Their dependence on him; carrying
with it friendship and affection; would in modern societies place
them in a position well understood; and on something like an
equality with him; but in the beginning of things one man was
always the kinsman; the slave; or the enemy of another; and mere
friendship and affection would; by themselves; create no tie
between man and man。 In order that they might have any reality;
they would have to be considered as establishing one of the
relations known to that stage of thought。 Between equals this
would be assumed or fictitious kinship。 But between the Chief who
embodied purity of tribal descent and his associates; it would
have more or less to follow the pattern of the slave's dependence
on his master; and; where the Companion was not actually the
Chief's slave; the bond which connected them would very probably
be adapted to the more honourable model furnished by the relation
between ex…slave and ex…master。
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