92 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



without tlie oriental accompaniment a gift.&quot; &quot; Damage 

 cleer,&quot; a gratuity to prothonotaries, had become in the 

 seventeenth century, a fixed assessment. That the pres 

 ents to State-functionaries formed, in some cases, their 

 entire revenues, is inferable from the fact that in the twelfth 

 century the great offices of the royal household were bought: 

 the value of the presents received was great enough to 

 make the places worth buying. Good evidence comes from 

 Russia. Karamsin &quot;.repeats the observations of the travel 

 lers who visited Muscovy in the sixteenth century: Is it 

 surprising, says these strangers, that the Grand Prince is 

 rich ? He neither gives money to his troops nor his ambassa 

 dors; he even takes from these last all the costly things 

 they bring back from foreign lands. . . . Nevertheless 

 these men do not complain. Whence we must infer that, 

 lacking payments from above, they lived on gifts from be 

 low. Whence, further, it becomes manifest that what we 

 call the bribes, which the miserably-salaried officials in Rus 

 sia now require before performing their duties, represent the 

 presents which formed their sole maintenance in times when 

 they had no salaries. And the like may be inferred respect 

 ing Spain, of which Rose says: &quot; From judge down to 

 constable, bribery and corruption prevail. . . . There is 

 this excuse, however, for the poor Spanish official. His gov 

 ernment gives him no remuneration, and expects every 

 thing of him.&quot; 



So natural has habit now made to us the payment of 

 fixed sums for specified services, that we assume this relation 

 to have existed from the beginning. But when we read 

 how, in slightly-organized societies, such as that of the 

 Bechuanas, the chiefs allow their attendants &quot; a scanty 

 portion of food or milk, and leave them to make up the 

 deficiency by hunting or by digging up wild roots; &quot; and 

 how, in societies considerably more advanced, as Dahomey, 

 &quot; no officer under government is paid; &quot; we are shown that 

 originally the subordinates of the chief man, not officially 



