The price of rice, which thus becomes of importance to the labourer, varies in different parts of the island, according to the fertility of the district where it is produced, its situation with regard to a market, or its distance from one of the numerous provincial capitals. As the means of transport, by which the abundance of one district might be conveyed to supply the deficiencies of another, and to equalize the distribution of the general stock, are few and laborious, this variation of price is sometimes very considerable: even in the same district there are great variations, according to the nature of the crop. In the Native Provinces, a _píkul_ (weighing 133⅓ lbs. English) sometimes sells below the fourth part of a Spanish dollar, and at other times for more than two Spanish dollars; but in common years, and at an average over the whole island, including the capital, the estimate may be taken at thirty Spanish dollars the _kóyan_ of thirty _píkuls_, or three thousand _kútis_. A _kúti_ of rice, according to this estimate, may be sold to the consumer, after allowing a sufficient profit to the retail merchant, for much less than a penny. But though the price of this common article of subsistence may be of some consequence to the Javan labourer, when he wants to make any purchase with his surplus portion, he is rendered independent of the fluctuations of the market for his necessary food, by the mode in which he procures it. He is generally the cultivator of the soil; and while he admits that law of custom, which assigns to the superior a certain share of the produce, he claims an equal right himself to the remainder, which is generally sufficient to support himself and his family: and he sometimes finds in this law of custom, sanctioned by the interest of both parties, a security in the possession of his lands, and a barrier against the arbitrary exactions of his chief, which could scarcely be expected under the capricious despotism of a Mahomedan government. In addition to this reserved share, he raises on his own account, if he is industrious, within what may be termed the cottage farm, all the vegetables, fruit, and poultry requisite for his own consumption. His wife invariably manufactures the slight articles of clothing, which, in such a climate, the common people are in the habit of wearing. What can be spared of the fruits of their joint industry from the supply of their immediate wants, is carried to market, and exchanged for a little salt fish, dried meat, or for other trifling comforts, hoarded as a store for the purchase of an ox or a buffalo, or expended in procuring materials for repairing the hut and mending the implements of husbandry.