54:4 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



agricultural, exhibit but slight modifications of this usage. 

 Though by the New Zealanders some extra claim of the chief 

 is lecognized, yet &quot;all free persons, male and female, consti 

 tuting the nation, were proprietors of the soil :&quot; there is a 

 qualified proprietorship of land, obtained by cultivation, 

 which &quot; does not destroy the proprietorship of the nation or 

 tribe. In Sumatra, cultivation gives temporary ownership but 

 nothing more. We read that the ground &quot; on which a man 

 plants or builds, with the consent of his neighbours, becomes 

 a species of nominal property &quot; ; but when the trees which 

 he has planted disappear in the course of nature, &quot; the land 

 reverts to the public.&quot; From a distant region may be cited an 

 instance where the usages, though different in form, involve 

 the same principle. Among the modern Indians of Mexico 



&quot; Only a house-place and a garden are hereditary ; the fields belong to 

 the village, and are cultivated every year without anything being paid 

 for rent. A portion of the land is cultivated in common, and the pro 

 ceeds are devoted to the communal expenses.&quot; 



This joint ownership of land, qualified by individual owner 

 ship only so far as circumstances and habits make it easy to 

 mark off individual claims, leads to different modes of using 

 the products of the soil, according as convenience dictates. 

 Anderson tells us that in &quot; Damara-land, the carcases of all 

 animals whether wild or domesticated are considered 

 public property.&quot; Among the Todas 



&quot; Whilst the land is in each case the property of the village itself, 

 . . . the cattle which graze on it are the private property of individuals, 

 being males. . . . The milk of the entire herd is lodged in the palthchi, 

 village dairy, from which each person, male and female, receives for his 

 or her daily consumption ; the unconsumed balance being divided, aa 

 personal and saleable property, amongst the male members of all ages, 

 in proportion to the number of cattle which each possesses in the herd.&quot; 



And then in some cases joint cultivation leads to a kindred 

 system of division. 



&quot; When harvest is over,&quot; the Congo people &quot; put all the kidney-beans 

 into one heap, the Indian wheat into another, and so of other grain : 

 then giving the Macolonte [chief] enough for his maintenance, and laying 

 aside what they design for sowing, the rest is divided at so much to 



