Landed property is generally in the possession of the better classes, and is cultivated for them by the free servants and slaves, who work alike, and experience exactly the same treatment. Lands generally descend to the nearest relations at the decease of the owner; but if he dies without heirs, or is put to death for an alleged crime, the Sultan claims them as his right: the owner, notwithstanding, can, if he pleases, buy or sell, without being bound by any sort of entail or clause, against parting with family property. Houses are held in the same way as the lands. When grounds are leased, or sold, the price is generally proportioned to the number of wells and date trees on the premises: it happens, however, not unfrequently, that the palms are the property of one man, while the land on which they grow belongs to another. The gardens are entirely cultivated by the paddle or hoe, and parcelled out into squares of about three feet, having little channels to them, for the purpose of irrigation. Much dung is used, and the sandy soil of old gardens almost assumes the appearance of earth. From the great labour requisite to keep these spots in order, it would not repay any non-resident to have lands in Fezzan; though I am confident that such possessions would be respected, as there are many absentees who have large groves of palms, which their relatives, or those employed by them, keep, and render up an exact account of. The difficulty of finding willing, honest, faithful, or contented workmen, is very great; and each master or agent is obliged to attend constantly to his own immediate property or charge; some gardens, however, are, and have been, attended for generations, by the same family of labourers.