The mysteries of _emphyteusis, emphyteuma,_ and _emphyteuta_ were still hidden to her, though her steward spoke of them with surprising loquacity and fluency.

She laboured hard to understand the system upon which her tenants held their lands from her, and it was some time before she succeeded.

It is easier to explain the matter at once than to follow Corona in her attempts to comprehend it.
To judge from the terms employed, the system of holdings common in the Pontifical States has descended without interruption from the time of the Romans to the present day.

As in old Roman law, _emphyteusis_, now spelt _emfiteuse_, means the possession of rights over another person's land, capable of transmission by inheritance; and to-day, as under the Romans, the holder of such rights is called the _emphyteuta_, or _emfiteuta_.

How the Romans came to use Greek words in their tenant-law does not belong to the matter in hand; these words are the only ones now in use in this part of Italy, and they are used precisely as they were in remote times.
A tenant may acquire rights of _emfiteuse_ directly from the owner of the land, like an ordinary lease; or he may acquire them by settlement--"squatting," as the popular term is.