They are themselves paid by the reservation of a certain share of what they collect, and of course are always ready to please their employers, and to increase their own emoluments, by enforcing every practicable exaction. Every officer has unlimited power over those below him, and is himself subject to the capricious will of the sovereign or his minister. When the Regent makes any new or exorbitant demand upon those whom he immediately superintends, they must exact it with an increased degree of rigor over the chiefs of villages, who are thus, in their turn, forced to press upon the cultivator, with the accumulated weight of various gradations of despotism. The _Búkul_, or the _Petíng'gi_ is the immediate head of the village, and however much his authority is modified in particular districts, has always extensive powers. To the cultivators, he appears in the character of the real landholder, as they have no occasion to look beyond him to the superior, by whom he is controlled. He distributes the lands to the different cultivators on such shares, and in such conditions, as he pleases, or as custom warrants, assesses the rents they have to pay, allots them their village duties, measures the produce of their fields, and receives the government proportion. He sometimes himself cultivates a small portion of land, and in so far is regarded only as a tenant, like the rest of the villagers. He is accountable for all the collections he realizes, with the reservation of a fifth part for his trouble, which share must be viewed merely as the emoluments of office, and not as the rent of the landlord, or the profits of a farmer. He sometimes holds his situation immediately of the sovereign, or by the election of the cultivators; but more generally from the intermediate agent of government, whom I have mentioned above, to whom he is accountable for his receipts. By his superior he may be removed at pleasure; although the local knowledge and accumulated means, which are the consequence of the possession of office, generally insure its duration to his person for a considerable period, or as long as his superior himself retains his power.