LOCAL GOVERNING AGENCIES. 461 



ing life to the settled life, with the implied establishment of 

 definite relations to the land, and the resulting multipli 

 cation and interfusion. 



To show that this process and its consequences arc 

 general, I may name the calpulli of the ancient Mexicans, 

 which &quot; means a district inhabited by a family ... of ancient 

 origin ; &quot; whose members hold estates which &quot; belong not to 

 each inhabitant, but to the calpulli ; &quot; who have chiefs chosen 

 out of the tribe ; and who &quot; meet for dealing with the com 

 mon interests, and regulating the apportionment of taxes, and 

 also what concerns the festivals.&quot; Arid then I may name 

 as being remote in place, time, and race, the still-existing 

 Russian mir, or village-commune ; which is constituted by 

 descendants of the same family-group of nomads who became 

 settled ; which is &quot; a judicial corporation . . . proprietor of 

 the soil, of which individual members have but the usufruct 

 or temporary enjoyment;&quot; which is governed by &quot; the heads 

 of families, assembled in council under the presidency of the 

 starosta or mayor, whom they have elected.&quot; Just noting these 

 allied examples, we may deal more especially with the Teu 

 tonic mark, which was &quot; formed by a primitive settlement of 

 a family or kindred,&quot; when, as said by Csesar of the Suevi, 

 the land was divided among &quot; gentes et cognationes homi- 

 num.&quot; In the words of Kemble, marks were 



&quot; Great family-unions, comprising households of various degrees of 

 wealth, rank, and authority ; some in direct descent from the common 

 ancestors, or from the hero of the particular tribe ; others, more dis 

 tantly connected . . . ; some, admitted into communion lay marriage, 

 others by adoption, others by emancipation ; but all recognizing a 

 brotherhood, a kinsmanship or sibsceaft ; all standing together as one 

 unit in respect of other similar communities ; all governed by the same 

 judges and led by the same captains ; all sharing in the same religious 

 rites ; and all known to themselves and to their neighbours by one 

 general name.&quot; 



To which add that, in common with family-groups as already 

 described, the cluster of kindred constituting the mark had, 

 like both smaller and larger clusters, a joint obligation tc 



