514 
TENURE OF LANDS. — POPULATION. 
passage between the outer fences, though more frequently placed 
farther apart. 
The concurrence of the Chief, in the choice they make of the 
spot on which they are to build, is always required ; and when a 
Bachapin, who has been living at another village or station, desires 
to fix his residence in the town, he applies to the Chief ; who with 
his kosies goes to inspect the spot, and either confirms the choice 
or appoints another. 
A permission of the same kind is necessary before any person can 
take possession of a spring of water and make use of the surround- 
ing pastures ; but as long as the occupier chuses afterwards to remain 
there, he is never disturbed or interrupted in his right, nor does he 
pay any other acknowledgment for this privilege, than the first cere- 
mony of asking leave. It must not, however, be concluded that 
this nation are acquainted with any of those distinctions of landed 
property, which would class such possessions either as allodial, or 
as feodal lands ; or that the soil, as I have before stated, is ever 
regarded as the property either of the Chief or of his subjects. 
A considerable space of unoccupied ground generally separates 
the division of one chieftain from that of another ; though some- 
times they adjoin. The number of such divisions, or clusters of 
houses, appeared, as I viewed the town from the surrounding hills, 
to be between thirty and forty. From the same point of view, I 
was enabled to form an estimate of the number of dwellings or 
families ; and this I found to be nearly eight hundred. Most of 
these dwellings consisted of an enclosure containing two, and often 
three, houses, in which the different members of the family, and the 
servants, were lodged ; or of which one served as a storehouse for 
corn and other provisions of that nature. 
By collecting together all the different data which could be 
obtained both from observation and inquiry, and taking the average 
of their results, I have ventured to state the number of inhabitants at 
Litakun, at five thousand ; and believe this to be rather below, than 
above, the actual amount. 
