[294] Prince, Digest of the Laws of Georgia, p. 788.
[295] Caruthers and Nicholson, Compilation of the Statutes of Tennessee, 675. Alden and van Hoesen, Digest of the Laws of Mississippi, p. 751. Morehead and Brown, Digest of the Statute Laws of Kentucky, ii. 1480 sq.
[296] Ball and Roane, Revised Statutes of Arkansas, xliv. 7. 2. 8, p. 276 sq.
[297] Edwards, History of the British West Indies, ii. 181.
[298] Morgan, Civil Code of Louisiana, art. 175.
[299] Stephen, op. cit. i. 60. Couty, L’esclavage au Brésil, p. 9.
Among many peoples, finally, we find the theory that nobody but the chief or king has proprietary rights, and that it is only by his sufferance that his subjects hold their possessions.[300] The soil, in particular, is regarded as his.[301] But even autocrats are tied by custom,[302] and in practice the right of ownership is not denied to their subjects.
[300] Butler, Travels in Assam, p. 94 (Kukis). Beecham, Ashantee, p. 96. Spencer, Descriptive Sociology, African Races, p. 12 (Abyssinians). Decle, op. cit. p. 70 sqq. (Barotse). Kidd, The Essential Kafir, p. 353. Ellis, History of Madagascar, i. 342. Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, ii. 171. Percy Smith, ‘Uea, Western Pacific,’ in Jour. Polynesian Soc. i. 112. Tregear, ‘Easter Island,’ ibid. i. 99. In Samoa it is a maxim that a chief cannot steal; he is merely considered to “take” the thing which he covets (Pritchard, Polynesian Reminiscences, p. 104). In Uea, when a chief enters a house, he enjoys the right to take all in it that he pleases (Percy Smith, in Jour. Polynesian Soc. i. 113). Among the Kafirs no case can be brought against a chief for theft, except if it be committed on the property of a person belonging to another tribe; and even the children of chiefs are permitted to steal from their own people (Brownlee, in Maclean, Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, p. 112 sq. Trollope, South Africa, ii. 303. Holden, Past and Future of the Kaffir Races, p. 338).
[301] Waitz, op. cit. iii. 128 (Indian tribes of North America); v. pt. i. 153 (Malays). Ellis, Polynesian Researches, iii. 115 (Sandwich Islanders). Bory de St. Vincent, Essais sur les Isles Fortunées, p. 64 (Guanches). Nicole, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 136 (Diakité-Sarracolese). Baskerville, ibid. p. 201 (Waganda). Beverley, ibid. p. 216 (Wagogo). Lang, ibid. p. 262 (Washambala). Rautanen, ibid. p. 343 (Ondonga). Stuhlmann, Mit Emin Pasha ins Herz von Africa, p. 75 (Wanyamwezi). Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, ii. 170 sq.; Ratzel, op. cit. i. 126; de Laveleye-Bücher, Das Ureigenthum, p. 275 (various African peoples). Kohler, Rechtsvergleichende Studien, p. 235 (Kandian law). Giles, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, ii. 369, n. 21 (Chinese).