1 86 POPULATION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS*
2 agree to take equal shares of the water, either by
3 the hour, or by the day, or by measurement.
4 In other cases, one will receive two-thirds, and
5 his neighbour one-third only, according to their
6 respective and pressing wants. The land-
7 holders, whose possessions are adjacent to the
8 hiUs from which end their base, these streams
9 and springs take their rise, require and demand
10 a very large portion of the water for their rice
11 lands, into which it is diverted by numberless
12 water-courses, drawn with great ingenuity by
13 the cultivators into distant and countless par-
14 terres. Those who hold land at a distance, and
15 lower down the river, in the more arid district,
16 are querulous that the streams do not flow
17 unobstructed in their natural course, which
18 would give them the unabsorbed portion to irri-
19 gate their wheat and barley crops.
20 " It seems to be a question how far a Chief may
21 be justified in entirely obstructing the course of
22 natural streams, and in appropriating the waters
23 to his own exclusive advantage, to the serious
24 detriment and loss of his neighbours, whose
25 rights he may be bound to respect, so far as they
26 have relation to property. On the whole, it
27 appears most just that all should partake, as far
28 as circumstances yyill admit, of a share in the
29 water of a natural stream or rivulet, and that
30 when the absolute wants of those on the upper