PROPERTY. 541 



the pursuit of it. In the latter [when taken in private traps] it is con 

 sidered as private property; nevertheless, any unsuccessful hunter 

 passing by, may take a deer so caught, leaving the head, skin, and 

 saddle, for the owner.&quot; 



In cases, still more unlike, but similar in the respect that 

 there exists an obvious connexion between labour expended 

 and benefit achieved, rude peoples re-illustrate this same 

 individualization of property. Burckhardt tells us of the 

 Bedouins that wells &quot; are exclusive property, either of a whole 

 tribe, or of individuals whose ancestors dug the wells.&quot; 



Taken together such facts make it indisputable that in early 

 stages, private appropriation, carried to a considerable extent, 

 is not carried further because circumstances render extension 

 of it impracticable. 



538. Eecognition of this truth at once opens the way to 

 explanation of primitive land-ownership ; and elucidates the 

 genesis of those communal and family tenures which have 

 prevailed so widely. 



While subsistence on wild food continues, the wandering 

 horde inhabiting a given area, must continue to make joint use 

 of the area; both because no claim can be shown by any 

 member to any portion, and because the marking out of small 

 divisions, if sharing were agreed upon, would be impracticable. 

 Where pastoral life lias arisen, ability to drive herds hither 

 and thither within the occupied region is necessary. In the 

 absence of cultivation, cattle and their owners could not 

 survive were each owner restricted to one spot: there is 

 nothing feasible but united possession of a wide tract. And 

 when there comes a transition to the agricultural stage, 

 cither directly from the hunting stage or indirectly through 

 the pastoral stage, several causes conspire to prevent, or to 

 check, the growth of private land-ownership. 



There is first the traditional usage. Joint ownership con 

 tinues after circumstances no longer render it imperative, 

 because departure from the sacred example of forefathers ia 

 resisted. Sometimes the resistance is insuperable ; as with 



