According to the law of England, a woman is justified in killing one who attempts to ravish her; and so also the husband or father may kill a man who attempts a rape on his wife or daughter, if she do not consent.[47] We meet with similar provisions in many other laws, modern and ancient.[48] St. Augustine says that the law allows the killing of a ravisher of chastity, either before or after the act, in the same manner as it permits a person to kill a highwayman who makes an attempt upon his life.[49] According to the Talmud, it is permissible to kill a would-be criminal, in order to prevent the commission of either murder or adultery "to save an innocent man's life, or a woman's honour"; but when the crime has already been accomplished, the criminal cannot be thus disposed of.[50] [Footnote 47: Harris, _op. cit._ p. 145.] [Footnote 48: Erskine-Rankine, _Principles of the Law of Scotland_, p. 558. _Ottoman Penal Code_, art. 186. Nordström, _Bidrag till den svenska samhälls-författningens historia_, ii. 349 (ancient Swedish laws). Plato, _Leges_, ix. 874.] [Footnote 49: St. Augustine, _De libero arbitrio_, i. 5 (Migne, _Patrologiæ cursus_, xxxii. 1227).] [Footnote 50: Benny, _op. cit._ p. 125. Rabbinowicz, _op. cit._ p. 124.] Among many peoples who in other cases prohibit self-redress, an adulterer and an adulteress may be put to death by the aggrieved husband, especially if they be caught _flagrante delicto_. Such a custom prevails in various uncivilised societies where justice is generally administered by a council of elders or the chief.[51] Among the ancient {291} Peruvians "a man killing his wife for adultery was free; but if for any other fault he died for it, unless he were a man in dignity, and then some other penalty was inflicted."[52] According to Chinese penal law, "when a principal or inferior wife is discovered by her husband in the act of adultery, if such husband at the very time that he discovers kills the adulterer, or adulteress, or both, he shall not be punishable."[53] By the law of Nepal, the Parbattia husband retains the privilege of avenging, with his own hand, the violation of his marriage bed, and anyone, save a learned Brahman or a helpless boy, who instead of using his own sword, should appeal to the courts, would be covered with eternal disgrace.[54] In all purely Moslem nations custom "overwhelms with ignominy the husband or son of an adulteress who survives the discovery of her sin; he is taboo'd by society; he becomes a laughing-stock to the vulgar, and a disgrace to his family and friends."[55] According to the 'Lex Julia de adulteriis,' a Roman father had a right to kill both his married daughter and her accomplice if she was taken in adultery either in his house or in her husband's, provided that both of them were killed, and that it was done at once. The husband, on the other hand, had no such right as to his wife in any case, and no such right as to her