ABSTRACT
We saw in the last chapter a crucial distinction between custom and law, in that custom is consensual while law is imposed; while custom is a part of social reality, law is a part of the secondary interpretive reality. In order to consider this relationship further and to begin a discussion of the relationship between law and property, we will quote a short story from Llewellyn and Hoebel’s The Cheyenne Way (1941, p 127). This is a ‘case’ which apparently took place among the Cheyenne, who were American Plains Indians.
