The hastiest glance at the law of the Alamanni, makes it absolutely clear that the soil was an object of private property throughout the district in which it was in force. We see from the first section that an individual might be so completely owner of his land that he could, by a mere act of will, give it away to a church; he had not to ask the leave of any group of associates. Ownership of land is spoken of as _proprietas_ and it is “perpetual.”[89] It is also hereditary; for the same law shows that if this man did not give his land to the church, it would pass “to his heirs;”[90] and it provides for the case of one of the heirs objecting to the gift, without mentioning the possibility that an “association of the mark” might lay claim to the land. The same code also mentions mills and water courses as objects of private property.[91] The following clause enlightens us still more as to the condition of the land: If a dispute arises between two families concerning the boundary of their lands, the two families fight in presence of the count; the one to whom God gives the victory enters into possession of the disputed territory; the members of the other family pay a fine of 12 solidi “because they have attacked _the property_ of another.”[92] Here we have a law which cannot apply to lands common to all. It is clearly dealing with property which is permanent, and sharply defined; though it is property which belongs not so much to the individual as to the family. Among the Alamanni, as we see, traces of family ownership still survived. In Bavarian law property in land is hereditary. Each domain is surrounded by a boundary made “either by a bank of earth, or by stones stuck in the ground, or by trees marked with some particular sign.”[93] And we must not suppose that these boundaries merely enclosed gardens; they enclosed fields and vineyards. “He who, whilst tilling his field or planting his vine, has unwittingly moved a land mark, shall restore it in the presence of his neighbours.” “When two neighbours having a common boundary have a dispute, if the land marks are not clear, the one says, ‘My ancestors possessed the land as far as this line, and left it me by inheritance:’ and the other protests and maintains that the land belonged to his ancestors as far as some other line; then the dispute is settled by judicial combat.”[94] This is a good instance of individual ownership. Ownership has long been hereditary; since each of the litigants says he has received his estate from his ancestors, and the lands have been held by the same families for several generations. Nor is it only to land under tillage that the right of ownership applies; it applies equally to forests and pastures; to uncultivated as well as to cultivated land: “If any one sells his property, whether cultivated land, or uncultivated, meadows or forests, the sale ought to be transacted in writing and before witnesses.”[95]