[Illustration: NATIVES IN THE AFRICAN JUNGLE.] I shall make a few remarks, first on various kinds of public property (84-91), and next on private property. 84. LAND. A man may hoe as much land as he pleases, and for any purpose. He may make trenches for entrapping deer, he may cut up the ground for great distances in search of moles for his dinner, or he may begin to plant and make a farm (62). He must never cultivate ground that has been betrothed by another party. But as soon as he hoes a field the ground is entirely his own. He hoes, and plants, and builds, without paying any tax or rent. It has been said with reference to various parts of Africa, that the soil belongs to the tribe and that, according to the native idea, no chief has a right to make grants of land. But I found chiefs always willing to grant as much land as they were asked for. It would be more correct to say that these natives do not know what can be the use of Perpetual property in land: when _their_ fields are farmed for two or three years, the soil yields a poor return, and they find it necessary to go to new ground. 85. TIMBER. One may cut wood wherever he chooses. I knew a chief ask strangers to pay for trees that were cut to make canoes; but he let his own subjects fell the largest trees without demanding any tax. At the time of the Mission’s arrival, the Blantyre district was covered with a dense jungle, which contained not only an impassable mass of young trees, but also a sprinkling of old ones. About twenty years before, the ground had been farmed over by natives who had then cut down the timber for manure and firewood, sparing only those larger trees, some of which had been the prayer trees of their old villages. 86. ROADS. Any person may hoe up a public road. Many a time have I found it difficult to keep the path after a new village had risen in its neighbourhood, although I had been familiar with the king’s highway before. When the owner of a farm puts a bunch of thorns on a path, every bare-legged native understands the signal. Still the road cannot be closed altogether, it will take a graceful curve round the side of the new farm. Where it passes through the centre of a large field the farmer leaves it alone. It is so hard that he prefers to try his hoe on the surrounding soil. 87. MINERALS. Where one has a right to hoe at all, he has a right to all the minerals that he may find, but if he dig much iron and make many hoes, he is expected to present some to the chief of the country. No one in this district knows about gold or silver. A piece of calico is more valued than all the coins of the Bank of England would be. 88. BUILDING MATERIALS.