Kipling's _Law of the Jungle_, in which he lays down the principles
by which the wolf pack secured united action in its hunting, names
the rules that apply almost universally to peoples in the savage
stage of society. According to the researches of the best
anthropologists, savages live in very loosely organized groups,
with no permanent ruler, no regular family law. Each separate
group has its totem, its general rules with reference to the
marriage relation, to hunting and fishing, to shelter and
protection. Practically there are no regular laws. The rules
fixed by custom deal primarily with the marriage relation and with
the securing of food and shelter. They are largely negative. If a
member of the group has met with a misfortune in a certain by-path
or from eating certain food or in other ways, by the action of the
leader of his group that path or that food becomes taboo, and from
that time on it is forbidden. The rules seem generally to be
largely the product of instinct or of experience, without any law
making, and they are enforced almost as instinctively by the common
consent of the people.