Bygone Era: Traditional Punishment For Murder and Adultery

Written by George Turner
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
( This is an extract from George Turner’s book 'Samoa in a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before' Death was the usual punishment for murder and adultery, and as the injured party was at liberty to seek revenge on the brother son or any member of the family to which the guilty party belonged, these crimes were all the more dreaded and rare. In case of murder, the culprit and all belonging to him, fled to some other village of the district or perhaps to another district, in either case it was a city of refuge. While they remained away, it was seldom any one dared to pursue them and risk hostilities with the village which protected them. They might hear however, that their houses had been burned, their plantations and land taken from them and they themselves prohibited by the united voice of the chief and heads of families from ever again returning to the place. Fines of large quantities of food which provided a feast for the entire village were common but there were frequently cases in which it was considered right to make the punishment fall exclusively on the culprit himself.. For adultery, the eyes were sometimes taken out and the ears bitten off. I was called into a house one day to doctor the nose of a young dame who had just suffered from the incisors of a jealous woman. A story is told of a husband and wife who made up their minds to end their jealousies by a separation. When all was ready and the woman was about to leave the house with her share of the mat and other property, she said to the man:” Now, let us again salute noses and part in peace.” The simpleton yielded but instead of friendly touch and smell, the vixen fastened on the poor fellow’s gnomon, and disfigured him for life. For other crimes they had some such punishments as tying the hands of the culprit behind his back, and marching him along naked or tying him hand to hand and foot to foot and then carrying him suspended from a prickly pole run through between the tied hands and feet, and laying him down before the family he had transgressed, as if he were a pig to be killed and cooked ; compelling the culprit to sit naked for hours in the broiling sun; to be hung by the heels; or to beat the head with stones till the face was covered with blood; or to play at handball with the prickly sea-urchin; or to take five bites of a pungent root, which was like filling the mouth five times with cayenne pepper. It was considered cowardly to shrink from the punishment on which the village court might decide, and so the young man would go boldly forward, sit down before the chiefs, bite the root five times get up and walk away with his mouth on fire. Comments (1) Subscribe to this comment's feed sao a? written by magaia, November 18, 2008 lelei ga faiga pe a koe faasala ai matai fai guu leaga o kumu ai Samoa, pe faasala ai foi le au monitor ma le au susue computer, pe faasala muamua ai Tuilaepa le alii palemia ma le HRPP ma le lakou RHD law ga o le a amaka i le kausaga fou. Faasala aua e leaga le service a le EPC, leaga le service a le falemai ae maumau ga kupe o le a fai ai ga change over i le RHD. Write comment Name Email Title Comment
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 November 2008 )

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