Through God's grace, Ammon found favor in the eyes of Lamoni, and, learning that it was his desire to reside amongst the Lamanites, the king offered him one of his daughters to wife. Ammon courteously declined this intended honor and begged to be accepted as one of the king's servants, which arrangement pleased Lamoni, and Ammon was placed in that part of the royal household that had charge of the monarch's flocks and herds. A glance at Lamanite society may not here be out of place. It would appear that in Lamoni's days the will of the sovereign was the law of the land. The king's power over the lives and property of his subjects was unlimited. We read of no constitution that prescribed or limited his authority. The more degraded portions of the race wandered in the vast wilderness, dwelling in tents, and subsisting on what they killed in the chase or stole. The more civilized Lamanites resided in cities, were wealthy in cattle, and followed the occupations general among semi-civilized races. Lamoni was rich in flocks and herds, probably the results of the taxation of the people, but even the king's property was not secure from theft. Marauding bands would watch for his numerous cattle as they approached their watering places. Then with yell and prolonged shout they would stampede the herds and drive away all they could beyond the reach of the king's servants. These would gather up what few animals, if any, they found, and return to the king in the full expectancy of being made to pay for the loss by the forfeit of their lives. They were seldom disappointed, for Lamoni or some of his predecessors had established a somewhat unique criminal code with regard to stealing the royal cattle. They had adopted the idea that it was easier and cheaper to make the herdsmen responsible for the losses and punish them therefor, than to hunt out and capture the thieves. It had at least one virtue, it prevented collusion between the robbers and the servants; but it produced much dissatisfaction among Lamoni's subjects.