it, and fish in streams passing through it,
as he pleases. The whole of the bush land of the community belongs
in separate portions to different owners, one man sometimes owning
two or more of such portions; and it is most remarkable that, though
there are apparently no artificial boundary marks between the various
portions, these boundaries are, somehow or other, known and respected,
and disputes with reference to them are practically unknown. How the
original allocations and allotments of land have been made does not
appear to be known to the people themselves.

The man's garden plot or plots are also his own, having been cleared
by him or some predecessor of his out of his or that predecessor's
own bush land; and he may build in his gardens as many houses as
he pleases. His ownership of his garden plot is more exclusive than
is that of his bush land, as other people are not entitled to pass
over it. But on the other hand, if he abandons the garden, and nature
again overruns it with growth--a process which takes place with great
rapidity--it ceases to be his garden, and reverts to, and becomes
absorbed in, the portion of the bush out of which it had been cleared;
and if, as it may be, he is not the sole owner of that portion of bush,
he loses his exclusive right to the land, which as a garden had been
his own sole property.

No man can sell or exchange either his bush land or his garden plots,
and changes in their ownership therefore only arise through death
and inheritance. This statement, however, is, I think, subject to the
qualification that an owner of bush-land will sometimes allow his son
or other male descendant to clear and make for himself a garden in it;
but I am not sure as to the point.

On a man's death his widow, if any, does not inherit any portion of his
property, either movable or immovable, but three things are allowed
to her. She is generally allowed one pig, which will be required by
her at a later date for the ceremony of the removal of her mourning;
and she shares with her husband's children, or, if there be none,
she has the sole right to, the then current season's crops and fruit
resulting from the planting effected by her late husband and herself,
though this is a right which, after her return home to her own people,
she would not continue to exercise; and she is allowed to continue to
occupy her husband's house, but this latter privilege terminates at
the mourning removal ceremony, when