356 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



property. But it is still more thus where the ruler is con 

 sidered more than human. Astley tells us that in Loango 

 the king is &quot; called samba and pongo, that is, god :&quot; and, 

 according to Proyart, the Loango people &quot; say their lives 

 and goods belong to the king.&quot; In Wasoro (East Africa) 

 &quot; the king has unlimited power of life and death ... in 

 some tribes ... he is almost worshipped.&quot; In Msam- 

 bara the people say &quot; we are all slaves of the Zumbe (king), 

 who is our Mulungu&quot; [god]. &quot;By the state law of Dahomey, 

 as at Benin, all men are slaves to the king, and most women 

 are his wives ;&quot; and in Dahomey the king is called &quot; the 

 spirit.&quot; The Malagasy speak of their king as &quot; our god ;&quot; and 

 he is lord of the soil, owner of all property, and master of 

 his subjects. Their time and services are at his command.&quot; 

 In the Sandwich Islands the king, personating the god, utters 

 oracular responses ; and his power &quot; extends over the pro 

 perty, liberty, and lives of his people.&quot; Various Asiatic 

 rulers, whose titles ascribe to them divine descent and nature, 

 stand in like relations to their peoples. In Siam &quot; the king 

 is master not only of the persons but really of the property 

 of his subjects : he disposes of their labour and directs their 

 movements at will.&quot; Of the Burmese we read &quot; their goods 

 likewise, and even their persons are reputed his [the king s] 

 property, and on this ground it is that he selects for his con 

 cubine any female that may chance to please his eye.&quot; In 

 China &quot;there is only one who possesses authority the 

 Emperor. ... A wang, or king, has no hereditary pos 

 sessions, and lives upon the salary vouchsafed by the 

 Emperor. . . . He is the only possessor of the landed 

 property.&quot; And the like is alleged of the divinely-descended 

 Japanese Mikado : &quot; his majesty, although often but a child 

 a few years old, still dispensed ranks and dignities, and the 

 ownership of the soil always in reality resided in him.&quot; 



Of course, where the political head has unlimited power 

 where, as victorious invader, his subjects lie at his mercy, or 

 where, as divinely descended, his will may not be questioned 



