The chief is called the “owner of the territory” (msiene chilambo), and has supreme power over every one that dwells within his dominions. It is true that he does not personally interfere with all his subjects, much less with their slaves, but he holds the headmen accountable for the government of their respective villages. He lives in what is called the “capital” (kumbala), which is inhabited mainly by his wives and slaves—a man’s greatness being always measured by the number of these. If he have ten wives, he must have ten huts for them; and he requires other huts for his older children and his slaves. These items alone make his village large, and he may have many people besides. He maintains no special army, for every man in the country is supposed to be a soldier. He rules his own village in the same way as an ordinary headman would do. He often gives considerable authority to his principal slave, who may be as important a functionary as Joseph was with his Egyptian master. In and around his own village the chief of the country is a terrible power, and his government is supported by the most prompt and severe punishments. But in distant parts of his dominions, where influential headmen live, he may be little known, although as a matter of theory he is supposed to settle all graver disputes even in remote villages. When an appeal comes up from a headman’s village, the chief generally decides it himself, but he may refer it either to this headman again or to some other headman in whom he has confidence. In a dispute between the inhabitants of different villages, the respective headmen represent their own subjects, and the chief is appealed to. All his decisions are final. Still the chief may often have less influence than powerful headmen, and we have known cases where he simply contented himself with grumbling when his headmen acted contrary to his desire; and in many criminal trials he is eclipsed by the sorcerers and pounders of poison. 70. GOVERNMENT OF THE COUNTRY. The chief governs his whole territory on the same principles as a headman governs a village (68). He presides over a parliament composed of his headmen, and he deals with this body in the same way as the headmen themselves deal with their own village parliaments. Order is maintained among the various classes of his subjects as follows:—(1) Slaves are entirely under their own master—they are his “goods”; (2) Freemen are under their elder brother in the first instance, but they may carry their cases to the headman of their village, or even to the chief of the country; (3) Headmen are under higher headmen and the chief. Where a chief sees occasion to interfere with his subordinates, he generally consults his own interest. He will say to a headman, “I see that you have been behaving badly to that subject of yours. You cannot get on with him; he must leave you and come to dwell in my own village!” The chief thus secures another servant. 71. HEADMEN.