Page:Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines.djvu/115

 elder brother). This office was for life or during good behavior. It was one of his duties to keep a reckoning of the soil of the calpulli, or 'calpulalli,' together with a record of its members, and of the areas assigned to each family, and to note also whatever changes occurred in their distribution. Such changes, if unimportant, might be made by him; more important ones, or contested cases, had to be referred to the council of the kinship, which in turn often appealed to a gathering of the entire quarter.

"The 'calpulalli' was divided into lots or arable beds, 'tlalmilli.' These were assigned each to one of the married males of the kinship, to be worked by him for his use and that of his family. If one of these lots remained unimproved for the term of two consecutive years, it fell back to the quarter for redistribution. The same occurred if the family enjoying its possession removed from the calpulli. But it does not appear that the cultivation had always to be performed by the holders of the tract themselves. The fact of improvement under the name of a certain tenant was only required to insure this tenant's rights.