Note 420 — Chapter II · GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVERY.

In Bali slavery certainly exists, or at least formerly existed; but, according to Liefrinck, only the chief and his family have slaves420. Waanders, however, who gives a detailed account of the Balinese slave-system, asserts that even Sudras have slaves, though he speaks but incidentally of this421. Perhaps the slaves kept by the common people are only debtor-slaves; for, according to Liefrinck, debtors serve their creditors, and are sometimes sold by auction422. Tonkes, who has (rather deficiently) collected the literature on the Balinese, does not solve the question. At any rate, slavery here is not a fundamental institution. The chief has great power, and the Hindu caste-system prevails, so that the social classes are widely separated; the Sudras are at the mercy of the upper castes423. Slavery, though discountenanced by the Dutch government, still prevailed as late as 1877424.