CH. IX JOUBNET TEBOUGH MINAHASSA 231 



these parts, I must ask for the attention of the reader while 

 I endeavour to explain their meaning. The mapalu may- 

 be briefly stated to be a gathering of the natives to work 

 gratuitously in the fields of a neighbour- — to sow, to reap, 

 or to dig for a member of the village community without 

 receiviag any reward beyond a certain amount of food and 

 hospitahty. 



The mapalu system is so closely connected with the 

 idea of communal or tribal possession of the land, that it 

 will be well first of all to consider the laws of land tenure 

 of the Miaahassers. It seems probable that in early times 

 the ancestors of the Malay races which at the present day 

 inhabit the peninsula of North Celebes were divided into 

 a number of tribes, or rather large family clans, each of 

 them inhabiting certain given districts with definite limits. 

 They lived upon the fish they caught, the produce of the 

 chase, and what fruits and roots they could gather in the 

 primeval forest. Every individual member of the clan had 

 the absolute and complete right to anything he could 

 capture or find within the limits of the district. There 

 was no division of the wild uncultivated land, but all the 

 members of the clan had equal rights to enjoy its benefits. 

 In time of war they joined together under the leadership 

 of the elder or chief to defend the common property, and 

 with one heart and hand they often fought together to 

 steal a portion of their neighbours'. With the development 

 of the territorial idea there came a rude form of agri- 

 culture. Portions of the forest were cleared and cultivated, 

 and new laws were introduced to regulate the possession of 

 the land thus opened up. It must have been at about this 

 stage in the history of their social development that the 

 simple family clans grew to be more complicated tribes. The 

 land laws were, however, still based upon the central idea 

 that the land belonged communally to the people, and they 



