THE VENDETTA LIVES ON

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 111, 13 May 1938, Page 6

THE VENDETTA LIVES ON

Tn the loveliest part nf Yugoslavia —tlic Dalmatian region surrounding the Bay of Cnttaro—the ancient practice of vendetta ie stil! preserved. In other districts of Vujioslavia the custom has been stamped out by modem government, hut the folk of Cattaro cling I'tubbornly to old tribal laws, refusingto replace them with new legal codes. The vendetta conducted according to fixed rules. It makes th<* tribe, or family, answerable for the deeds of the individual. Tribal blood is considered spilled whenever a member of the tribe is killed, wounded or mortally offended by a member of another tribe. It must be lialanced by an equal spilling of the rival clan's blood. The rival clan must then retaliate, and it is possible —though improbable —for the prooe«! to go on until only one survivor remains, of the two tribes. Since the cause of the initial blood spilling is immaterial, the vendetta once presented certain problems. A Oattaro civil prisoner officially condemned to death liad to be executed by 200 riflemen belonging to different tribes, thiie making 'impracticable the fixation of individual responsibility for the death. There are a number of reasons why the men of Cattaro have Tiot been gradually exterminated by the vendetta, and why, in fact, the vendetta is now diminishing. Most important, the blood spilling can he halted by payment of blood money, which atones for offencee.