was an "eternal leitis" (лейти звечный). From other sources of the first half of the 16th century, it is known that new people could not become leičiai although they could be accepted to perform the same services. Leičiai, unlike villeins, owned their patrimonial plots, had the right to relocate and return, and were accountable for performing their duties as brethren and not as households. After the Wallach Reform, leičiai became equal to other villeins and this distinct social group disappeared. Leičiai were replaced by boyars. Hypothesis on etymology of Lietuva Leičiai and Lietuva The synonymy of the words leičiai and Lietuva is shown by the historical naming of one place near Anykščiai in the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Ten villages in Anykščiai volost was called Leičiai, Lietuva, also possibly Leituva: у Лейтахъ (1532; an example of Leičiai (as a place name) in writing); у войтовъстве Левътевскомъ (< Лейтевском; 1569), до Лейтовского рубежа (1545; possibly derived from Leituva); we … wojtowstwie Liejtowskim (1597); войтовъстве Летувъском (1595, 1597; derived from Lietuva or Lētuva). Lithuanian -i.e.- was rendered as -и- or -е- in writing, or as -е- if it was -ē- instead of -i.e.-. A case of rendering Karšuva place name as w Korszewie, Korszewska, Korszewski powiat (16th century) shows that Левътевскомъ (< Лейтевском) could be reconstructed as Leituva. The variant Lietuva or Lētuva was also old, for example, the form of the name of the same place from the end of the 14th century: a Hilgebeke [...] usque Borchwal, nomine Lettow (from Šventoji River up to the castle, of a name Lithuania). The location of this castle has been determined to be the Šeimyniškėliai hill fort. The word Lettow means Lithuania (compare, for example, an inscription of Jogaila's seal: Yagal, Dey gracia rex in Lettow; 1377–1386), the word 'castle' had maybe a meaning of the whole administrative area or volost. The ethnonymic meaning of leičiai, e.g. "Lithuanians", is known from several sources. This word is used by Latvians to name Lithuanians: leiši, sg. leitis. In Samogitian dialect there were words leičiuoti (to speak in other than Samogitian, or to speak in Aukštaitian dialect) and leičiukas, leičiūkas (person speaking in another dialect than Samogitian, has an accent). Compare, for example, with modern Lithuanian žemaičiuoti (to speak in the Samogitian dialect). In historical written sources, an important example is known from one participant of the Conference of Lutsk in 1429. John