518 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



dependent ways, by his followers. Of the first result there 

 are many instances. &quot; The kings of Abyssinia are above all 

 laws . . . the land and persons of their subjects are equally 

 their property.&quot; &quot; In Kongo the king hath the sole property 

 of goods and lands, which he can grant away at pleasure. * 

 And 479 contains sundry other examples of militant socie 

 ties in which the monarch, otherwise absolute, is absolute 

 possessor of the soil. Of the second result instances were 

 given, in 458 ; and I may here add some others. Ancient 

 Mexico supplies one. 



&quot; Montezuma possessed in most of the villages . . . and especially in 

 those he had conquered, fiefs which he distributed among those called 

 the gallant fellows of Mexico. These were men who had distinguished 

 themselves in war.&quot; 



Under a more primitive form the like was done in Iceland by 

 the invading Norsemen. 



&quot; When a chieftain had taken possession of a district, he allotted to 

 each of the freemen who accompanied him a certain portion of land, 

 erected a temple (hof ), and became, as he had been in Norway, the 

 chief, the pontiff, and the judge of the herad.&quot; 



But, as was shown when treating of political differentia 

 tion, it is not only by external aggressors that the joint pos 

 session by all freemen of the area they inhabit is over-ridden. 

 It is over-ridden, also, by those internal aggressors whose 

 power becomes great in proportion as the militancy of the 

 society becomes chronic. With the personal subordination 

 generated by warfare, there goes such subordination of owner 

 ship, that lands previously held absolutely by the community, 

 come to be held subject to the claims of the local magnate ; 

 until, in course of time, the greater part of the occupied area 

 falls into his exclusive possession, and only a small part con 

 tinues to be common property. 



To complete the statement it must be added that occasion 

 ally, though rarely, the passing of land into private hands 

 takes place neither by forcible appropriation, nor by the gra 

 dual encroachment of a superior, but by general agi cement 

 Where there exists that form of communal ownership undei 



