And sometimes in a complex form. — It is also worth while
noting that when a separation takes place, it is not always so
simple a matter as my illustration supposes. For a body of co-
sharing descendants may own much more than one village ; or
they may have begun with one and expanded or extended into
several. When they divide, in order to secure the shares being
equal in value or advantage, as far as possible, they will ignore the
village or mauza limits, and make the pattis and shares up of
various strips and plots scattered about through several villages,
one at a considerable distance from the other. The survey at
Settlement marks these sections in each village; and tables are
drawn up collecting the plots forming each estate, together ; and
the assessment is then on the mahdl or aggregate of plots held
under one family title, but otherwise exactly the same as if all the
shares had been locally in one village. A common term for this
scattered allotment is khetbat ; and where the division is by means
of compact shares, it \%patUbat.
Villages shared on other principles. — I must now pass on
to consider villages still held by more or less closely constituted
communities (who regard themselves as collectively landlord of
the entire area) and yet either (a) share on some other principle
than that of ancestral shares; or (3) hold by mere possession or
de facto holdings (see p. 76).
