POSSESSIONS IN THE INDIAN ARCIIIPEEAGO. 
133 
'will undoubtedly excite a general discontent amongst the immense 
Javanese population, above all amongst those classes who are at pre¬ 
sent tlie most firm supporters of power, and the most devoted auxili¬ 
aries of the European authority- 
The institutions and the adats do not in any manner admit of in¬ 
dividual property in the soil. Each commune possesses, since, ancient, 
times, certain portions of ground over which it exercises recogniz¬ 
ed rights. The members of the commune enjoy these lands by a usu¬ 
fructuary title according'to the ancient usages of the country; they pay 
for their use in the produce of the cultivation or in money. The ar¬ 
tificial irrigation of those which are destined for the cultivation of rice 
l>y Sawak , having required the united efforts of all the inhabitants of 
the village, these lands are considered as common property, certain 
lights of the first clearers excepted. Those rights which are trans¬ 
missible have a certain determined selling value, and the enjoyment 
is subjected to important conditions. The labours for tire service, 
whether for the village or the state, fall exclusively upon the posses¬ 
sors of rice fields which are of a nature to be artificially irrigated. 
When the other inhabitants of the village take a part in these la¬ 
bours, which is always the case, this co-operation is the result of a 
stipulated arrangement according to the custom followed in each lo¬ 
cality. If, for example, a coffee plantation must be established by the 
commune, the tenants of the sawah rice, fields are those upon whom 
according to the adat, fall the obligation of the labours; but when 
the other inhabitants of the village take a part in them, they are.m- 
demdified by the former. 
The privileges of communes and the rights of clearers do not pre¬ 
vent the sovereign from acting as master of the soil; if he desires to 
appropriate a part of the lands of a village, even those which are 
cleared lands, in order to turn them to some purpose of public utili¬ 
ty, no one has the right of opposing him. It is nevertheless custo¬ 
mary, and the usage is sanctioned by the adat without which it would 
never be known, that in such case the sovereign grants an indemnity, 
of which the amount is equivalent to the necessary expenses of new 
clearings. 
Under the rule of the native sovereigns the irrigated lands were 
distributed into tjatjak ,* literally parcels . The taxes, the public 
services and the corvees, rested upon the tenant or the chief of the 
* The substantive tjatjah is derived from the verb naijah , to cut in 
pieces. The average number of a tjaijah is calculated at 22 persons. 
