went to clear up his lands for tillage.  The lands which they inhabited were divided among the whole barangay, especially the irrigated portion, and thus each one knew his own.  No one belonging to another barangay would cultivate them unless after purchase or inheritance.  The lands on the tingues, or mountain-ridges, are not divided, but owned in common by the barangay.  Consequently, at the time of the rice harvest, any individual of any particular barangay, although he may have come from some other village, if he commences to clear any land may sow it, and no one can compel him to abandon it.  There are some villages (as, for example, Pila de la Laguna) in which these nobles, or maharlicas, paid annually to the dato a hundred gantas of rice.  The reason of this was that, at the time of their settlement there, another chief occupied the lands, which the new chief, upon his arrival, bought with his own gold; and therefore the members of his barangay paid him for the arable land, and he divided it, among those whom he saw fit to reward.  But now, since the advent of the Spaniards, it is not so divided.

The chiefs in some villages had also fisheries, with established limits, and sections of the rivers for markets.  At these no one could fish, or trade in the markets, without paying for the privilege, unless he belonged to the chief’s barangay or village.

The commoners are called aliping namamahay.  They are married, and serve their master, whether he be a dato or not, with half of their cultivated lands, as was agreed upon in the beginning.  They accompanied him whenever he went beyond the island, and rowed for him.  They live in their own houses, and are lords of their property and gold.  Their children inherit it, and enjoy their property and lands.  The children, then, enjoy the rank of their fathers, and they cannot be made slaves (sa guiguilir) nor can either parents or children be sold.  If they should fall by inheritance into the hands of a son of their master who was going to dwell in another village, they could not be taken from their own village and carried with him; but they would remain in their native village, doing service there and cultivating the sowed lands.

The slaves are called aliping sa guiguilir.  They serve their master in his house and on his cultivated lands, and may be sold.  The master grants them, should he see fit, and providing that he has profited through their industry, a portion of their harvests, so that they may work faithfully.  For these reasons, servants who are born in the house of their master are rarely, if ever, sold.  That is the lot of captives in war, and of those brought up in the harvest fields.