SERFDOM. 481 



subject to the Makololo, who &quot; cannot begin to cultivate for 

 themselves till they have first finished the chief s farm/ 

 who give to the chief the greater part of the game they kill, 

 and are &quot; governed like prisoners of war.&quot; Then, at the 

 other extreme, we have the almost nominal subjection in a 

 Damara kraal ; where of all the cattle the fourth, belonging 

 to the chief, have to be looked after by the people, and where 

 &quot; the perquisites for taking care of the chief s cattle consisted 

 of the milk of the cows, and occasionally a calf or lamb.&quot; Of 

 the various forms of this industrial regulation among Asiatic 

 peoples, here is one from the Kukies: 



&quot;The revenue exacted by these chieftains is paid in kind and labour. 

 In the former each able-bodied man pays annually a basket of rice 

 containing about two maunds: out of each brood of pigs or fowls 

 reared in the village, one of the young becomes the property of the 

 Rajah, and he is further entitled to one quarter of every animal killed 

 in the chase, and, in addition, to one of the tusks of each elephant so 

 slain. In labour, his entire population are bound to devote four days 

 in each year, in a body, for the purpose of cultivating his private fields.&quot; 



A similar state of things existed in ancient Yucatan. The 

 common people cultivated the estates, and erected the 

 houses, of their lords, and gave them a part of the produce 

 of hunting, fishing, &c. Then ancient Mexico furnished 

 evidence showing how serfdom or slavery varies according 

 to the natures of the rulers. 



&quot;A slave in an Indian tribe, as Las Casas remarks, possessed his 

 house, his hearth, his private property, his farm, his wife, his children, 

 and his liberty, except when at certain stated times his lord had need 

 of him, to build his house, or labour upon a field, or at other similar 

 things which occurred at stated intervals.&quot; 



!N&quot;ot so was it under the white savages from Europe. After 

 the above passage Helps quotes a letter from the Auditors 

 of Mexico to the emperor in 1552, which says: 



&quot; Granted that amongst the Indians there were slaves, the one servi 

 tude is very different from the other. The Indians treated their slaves 

 as relations and vassals; the Christians as dogs.&quot; 

 As further showing variety in origin and nature, may be 



