The Nomadic Alternative – Page 85

to the books of the past. Ssu-Ma-Chien, the Grand Historian of China, observed in the Hsiung-Nu or Eastern Huns this reluctance to venerate the sanctity of the written word: "They have no writing; even their promises and agreements are only verbal." Nomad treachery opposes the deviousness of the settler.

The punishments of a nomad are brutal, but at least they are quick. The exquisite refinements of the torture chamber, that com-bination of blood, cracked ribs and mechanics, are unknown to him.

The notion of equivalence informs his criminal code - "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." A nomad never runs to the law. He is his own court and executioner and heaven help him if he makes a mistake. He identifies the criminal, personally pays him out for the crime. And he takes full responsibility for so doing. Murder he usually repays in kind, for a life demands a life. Consequently the great nomad invaders either freed their captives or butchered the lot to avoid retribution. Hence the piles of skulls that marked the passing of a Genghiz Khan or Tamerlane. These mass slaughters, however, were the exception rather than the rule, and epitomize the devastating effects of nomadic values when harnessed to the political framework of an empire. Normally the prescribed punishments made a difficult life relatively peaceful, since all parties to a quarrel frantically tried to extinguish the spread of vendettas. In his Mutual Aid, the Russian anarchist, Prince Kropotkin recalled this of the Mongolian Kalmucks: "If a quarrel ended in a fight and wounds, the man who did not interpose was treated as if he himself had inflicted the wounds."

Natural health and spontaneous generosity also soften the harshness of life. The tribes shy away from epidemic-ridden towns, and their diet, with its rich sources of protein, averts the vegetarian lassitude of the peasant. All food is shared equally and once a passing stranger shows himself a friend, hospitality is automatic, his life and property sacrosanct. The owner of a tent is honour-bound to share his 'bread and salt' with a visitor.