If these precautions are
neglected, the kinsfolk of the dead snake will send one of their
number as an avenger of blood, who will track down the murderer and
sting him to death. No ordinary Cherokee dares to kill a wolf, if he
can possibly help it; for he believes that the kindred of the slain
beast would surely avenge its death, and that the weapon with which
the deed had been done would be quite useless for the future, unless
it were cleaned and exorcised by a medicine-man. However, certain
persons who know the proper rites of atonement for such a crime can
kill wolves with impunity, and they are sometimes hired to do so by
people who have suffered from the raids of the wolves on their
cattle or fish-traps. In Jebel-Nuba, a district of the Eastern
Sudan, it is forbidden to touch the nests or remove the young of a
species of black birds, resembling our blackbirds, because the
people believe that the parent birds would avenge the wrong by
causing a stormy wind to blow, which would destroy the harvest.
But the savage clearly cannot afford to spare all animals.
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