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Rice-fields and gardens always belong to one particular gampōng, and thus it is to the gampōng authorities that recourse is had in the first instance to maintain the rights of the owners and to compel them to observe their obligations.
The padang.Where, as in the Tunòng, the land has not been taken entirely into cultivation, there is annexed to each gampōng, in addition to the "blang" or area composed of umòngs or padi-fields, another area (padang) on which there is no cultivation. All the inhabitants of a mukim have a right to open umòngs on an unoccupied padang, situated within that mukim, which umdngs thenceforward become their property; but this privilege is seldom availed of. It is more usual to open gardens on the padang, but this gives a right to what is planted only and not to the ground itself. The only padang in the neighbourhood of the capital was a small tract near Panté Piraʾ. Elsewhere in the lowlands it is rarely to be met with.
Wakeuëh lands.Ownership of the trees etc. planted, exclusive of ownership of the ground, is not confined to the padangs; it is also to be met with in the case of what are called wakeuëh lands, for instance those which extend to the depth of seven great fathoms (deupa meunara) on either side of the river, and which used to be at the disposal of the raja[1].
Forfeiture of acquired rights over land.All right to possession of land is lost by abandonment or complete neglect, such as causes all traces of clearing to disappear. This of course happens most often in the case of ladangs, but seldom in that of wet rice-fields, gardens or courtyards. With respect to the last three even the theory of forfeiture is not entirely accepted by the people. So long as it is remembered that the umòng of X or the lampōïh of Y lay in a certain place, the common folk are generally inclined to recognize unconditionally the rights of X or Y or their successors in title whenever they choose to assert them.
It is especially the covetous ulèëbalangs who in their own interest declare such lands forfeit after they have been for a long time without a master. In like manner they greedily annex the heritages of strangers on the pretext of the difficulty involved in seeking out the heirs, or
- ↑ An ordinary deupa is the distance from tip to tip of the middle fingers when a man stands with the arms outstretched. The deupa meunara is measured from the middle finger of the right hand to the sole of the foot, the right arm being raised to its full stretch above the head.
