Blood Money, money paid to the next of kin of a man who met with his death at the hands of another, accidentally or with premeditation. It secured the murderer and his relations against retaliation by the relatives of the deceased. The Greeks called it πoιvή, the Latins paena, the Franks, Alemanni, and Scandinavians manbote, wehrgeld, or wyrgilt, the British Celts saarhard, and the Irish Celts eric. The Arabs call it diyeh. The institution still flourishes in many communities of Asia and Africa. Among the Arabs the blood money varies in different parts of the country from 1,000 dir-hems of silver (about $150) to 10,000 ($1,500). The price for a woman is about one third of that for a man, or somewhat more. If pregnant with a male child at the time of the murder, the murderer or his relations pay the full price of a man and woman; if with a female child, then the full price of two women. - In English criminal law the term blood money was also applied to rewards offered by statute to informers against highway robbers, thieves, burglars, and utterers of false coin or forged bank notes.

Such statutes, however, were found to tempt evil-disposed persons to make a living out of these laws by entrapping unwary and foolish people into the commission of crime, and they have consequently been repealed.