738 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to a large extent in practice, he is owner of his subjects and of the 

 territory they occupy. 



Where militancy is pronounced and the claims of a conqueror un- 

 qualified, it is indeed to a considerable degree thus Avith those unciv- 

 ilized peoples who do not ascribe supernatural characters to their 

 rulers. Among the Zooloo Caff res the chief " exercises supi-eme power 

 over the lives of his people" ; "the Bheel chiefs have a power over 

 the lives and property of their own subjects " ; and in Feejee the subject 

 is property. But it is still more thus where the ruler is considered 

 more than human. Astley tells us that in Loango the king is " called 

 samba and ponffo, that is, god" ; and, according to Proyart, the Lo- 

 ango people " say their lives and goods belong to the king," In Wa- 

 soro, East Africa, " the king has unlimited power of life and death . . . 

 in some tribes ... he is almost worshiped." In Msambara the people 

 say, " We are all slaves of the Zumbe (king), who is our Mulungu " 

 (god). "By the state law of Dahomey, as at Benin, all men are slaves 

 to the king, and most women are his wives " ; and in Dahomey the 

 king is called " the spirit." The Malagasy speak of the king as " our 

 god " ; and he is lord of the soil, owner of all property, and master of 

 his subjects. Their time and services are at his command." In the 

 Sandwich Islands the king, personating the god, utters oracular re- 

 sponses ; and his power " extends over the property, liberty, and lives 

 of his people." Various Asiatic rulers, whose titles ascribe to them 

 divine descent and nature, stand in like relations to their peo^^les. In 

 Siam " the king is master not only of the persons but really of the 

 property of his subjects ; he disposes of their labor and directs their 

 movements at will." Of the Burmese we read, " Their goods likewise, 

 and even their persons, are reputed his [the king's] property, and on 

 this ground it is that he selects for his concubine any female that may 

 chance to please his eye." In China " there is only one who possesses 

 authority the Emperor. ... A wang, or king, has no hereditary 

 possessions, and lives upon the salary vouchsafed by the Emperor. . . . 

 He is the only possessor of the landed property." 



Of course, where unlimited power is possessed by the political head 

 where, as victorious invader, his subjects lie at his mercy, or where, 

 as divinely descended, his will may not be questioned without impiety, 

 or where he unites the characters of conqueror and god he naturally 

 absorbs every kind of authority ; he is at once military head, legislative 

 head, judicial head, ecclesiastical head. The fully developed king is 

 the supreme center of every social structure and the director of every 

 social function. 



In a small tribe it is practicable for the chief personally to discharge 

 all the duties of his office. Besides leading the other warriors in battle, 

 he has time enough to settle disputes, he can sacrifice to the ancestral 

 ghost, he can keep the village in order, he can inflict punishment, he 



