456 REPORT—1840. 
57. Is there any division of clans or castes? 
a are the privileges enjoyed by or withheld from 
these ! 
59. What care is taken to keep them distinct, and with what 
effect on the physical and moral character of each ? 
60. What laws exist among the people? How are they 
preserved? Are they generally known, or confided to the me- 
mory of a chosen set of persons? What are their opinions and 
regulations in reference to property, and especially the occu- 
pation and possession of the soil? Does the practice of hiring 
labourers exist among them ? 
61. Have they any knowledge or tradition of a legislator, to 
whom the formation of laws is ascribed ? 
62. Do they rescind, add to, or modify their laws? and 
how? 
63. Are they careful in the observance of them? 
64. What are their modes of enforcing obedience, and of 
proving and punishing delinquency ? 
65. How are judges constituted? Do their trials take place 
at stated periods, and in public? 
66. How do they keep prisoners in custody, and treat 
them ? 
67. What are the crimes taken cognizance of by the laws ? 
Is there gradation or commutation of punishment ? 
Geography and Statistics. 
68. Briefly state the geographical limits and character of the 
region inhabited by the people to whom the replies relate. 
69. State approximatively the number of inhabitants. As this 
is an important, but very difficult question, it may not be amiss 
to point out the modes in which the numbers may be ascer- 
tained. The people themselves may state their number with 
more or less accuracy, but it should be known whether they 
refer to all ranks and ages, or merely comprehend adult males, 
who may be mustered for war, or other general purpose re- 
quiring their combination. In this case state the apparent 
proportion between adult males and other members of families. 
The number of habitations in a particular settlement may be 
counted, and some idea of the average numbers of a family 
be given. Where the people inhabit the water-side, the num- 
ber and dimensions of their craft may be taken, and some idea 
of the proportion between the number of these and of the indi- 
viduals belonging to them, may be formed. In drawing con- 
clusions from observations of this kind, it will be necessary to 
have due regard to the different degrees of density or rarity in 
which, from various causes, population may be placed. 
