Above the headman the District Officer and the Kaymakam also have authority to settle disputes of a limited value ad hoc, subject to the right of the disputants to appeal to the courts. I have no record of an actual case in either of the villages but I am assured that such cases occur fairly frequently, and I did sit in on an informal hearing of such a case in another village. This procedure allows a wise official to make decisions on the basis of village public opinion, and to ignore strictly legal arguments which often do not coincide with equity. But on the whole, though many disputes do come to the authorities and even to the courts, a very much larger number of disputes simply remain unsettled.
Formerly land was freely available for cultivation (p. 134), and in those days disputes about land must have been far less frequent. But as soon as land becomes short and cash-cropping normal, it is plainly prudent to establish rights to land wenever possible. Claims were constantly made on a wide range of grounds. Traditionally sales of land took place between kin and even neighbours, but transfers were never registered and the village assumed that the vendor had the right to buy the land back for the purchase price whenever he chose. In an inflating economy people make frequent use of this right, usually demanding the land back, as a cover for obtaining a further payment to match the increased money value of the land. Others claimed that land was originally lent to kin as a favour, sometimes in return for an annual gift or on a share-cropping basis. Cultivators counter-claim that the original gift or sale was outright, or sometimes that since the dues paid on the land exceed its value they have acquired it by purchase. The varieties of argument are endless and the facts exceedingly difficult to establish.
This growth in the frequency of disputes has coincided with the weakening of the village's own political system brought about by increased governmental interference. A large number of grievances and disputes over land simply remain unresolved, and possession is usually ten-tenths of the law.
It does not follow that in the past the village authorities settled disputes efficiently or finally. Although marginal land was once freely available it is highly probable that the village has always been full of claims and counter-claims, and that