[Footnote: Zurita (p. 93): "In case of need it was permitted to farm out the lands of a calpulli to the inhabitants of another quarter." Herrera (Dec. III, lib. IV, cap, XV, p. 134): "They could be rented out to another lineage.">[
If the kinship died out, and its lands therefore became vacant, then they were either added to those of another whose share was not adequate for its wants or they were distributed among all the remaining calpulli.' [Footnote: Zurita (p. 52): "When a family dies out, its lands revert to the calpulli, and the chief distributes them among such members of the quarter as are most in need of it.">[
The calpulli was a democratic organization. Its business lay in the hands of elective chiefs—'old men' promoted to that dignity, as we intend to prove in a subsequent paper, for their merits and experience, and after severe religious ordeals. These chiefs formed the council of the kin or quarter, but their authority was not absolute, since on all important occasions a general meeting of the kindred was convened. [Footnote: Zurita (pp. 60, 61, 62). Ramirez de Fuenleal ("Letter," etc., Ternaux-Compaus, p. 249).]
The council in turn selected an executive, the 'calpullec' or 'chinancallec,' who in war officiated as 'achcacauhtin' or 'teachcauhtin' (elder brother).
[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote 10 relocated to chapter end.]
This office was for life or during good behavior. [Footnote: Zurita (pp. 60 and 61). Herrera (Dec. III, Lib. IV, cap. XV, p. 125): "I le elegian entre si y tenian por maior.">[
It was one of his duties to keep a reckoning of the soil of the calpulli, or 'calpulalli,' together with a record of its members, and of the areas assigned to each family, and to note also whatever changes occurred in their distribution.
[Transcriber's Note: Lengthy footnote 11 relocated to chapter end.]
Such changes, if unimportant, might be made by him; more important ones, or contested cases, had to be referred to the council of the kinship, which in turn often appealed to a gathering of the entire quarter. [Footnote: Zurita "Rapport," etc., pp. 56 and 62. We quote him in preference, since no other author known to us has been so detailed.]
The 'calpulalli' was divided into lots or arable beds, 'tlalmilli'.