Very generally drunkenness is recognised as a ground of extenuation. We hear from various sources that the North American Indians were exceedingly merciful to intoxicated offenders. According to Charlevoix, the Iroquois "suffer themselves to be ill used by drunken people, without defending themselves, for fear of hurting them. If you endeavour to shew them the folly of this conduct, they say, 'Why should we hurt them? They know not what they do.'" Even "if a savage kills another belonging to his cabin, if he is drunk (and they often counterfeit drunkenness when they intend to commit such actions),[183] all the consequence is, that they pity and weep for the dead. 'It is a misfortune (they say), the murderer knew not what he did.'"[184] James makes a similar statement with reference to the Omahas.[185] In his description of the aborigines of Pennsylvania, Blome observes, "It is rare that they fall out, if sober; and if drunk they forgive it, saying, it was the drink, and not the man that abused them."[186] Benjamin Franklin tells us of some Indians who had misbehaved in a state of intoxication, and in consequence sent three of their old men to apologise; "the orator acknowledged the fault, but laid it upon the rum, and then endeavoured to excuse the rum."[187] The detestable deeds which men did under the influence of _pulcre_, or the native Mexican wine, the Aztecs attributed to the god of wine or to the wine itself, and not in the least to the drunken man. Indeed, if anybody spoke ill of or insulted an intoxicated person, he was liable to be punished for disrespect to the god by which that person was supposed to be possessed. {279} Hence, says Sahagun, it was believed, not without ground, that the Indians made themselves drunk on purpose to commit with impunity crimes for which they would have been punished if they had committed them sober.[188] [Footnote 183: _Cf._ Hennepin, _op. cit._ p. 71.] [Footnote 184: Charlevoix, _op. cit._ ii. 23, 25. According to Loskiel (_History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America_, i. 16), the Iroquois, though they laid all the blame on the rum, punished severely murder committed in drunkenness.] [Footnote 185: James, _Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains_, i. 265.] [Footnote 186: Blome, in Buchanan, _North American Indians_, p. 328.] [Footnote 187: Franklin, _Autobiography_, ch. ix. (_Works_, i. 164).] [Footnote 188: Sahagun, _Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España_, i. 22, vol. i. 40.]