10. In modern times, in this part of India, practically all the tribes which permit widow marriage allow the levirate in the restricted form that it is only the younger son of the late husband who is allowed or expected to take the widow to wife. Whatever may have been the idea connected with this practice in early times, the fiction that the son was supposed “to raise up seed unto his brother” seems to have altogether disappeared, and no survival of this rule of affiliation has been discovered. In fact, according to common custom, the widow is regarded as a kind of property which has been purchased into the family by the payment of the bride-price; and among some of the Dravidian tribes there is a rule of tribal law that if the widow goes to live with a stranger to the family, he is bound to repay the bride-price, and in some cases the costs incurred in her first marriage, to her younger brother-in-law or his father. It is noticeable that in this form of the levirate alliance with the elder brother of her late husband is rigidly prohibited: in fact all through the Hindu caste system any intercourse, even to the extent of speaking to, touching, or appearing unveiled in the presence of, her husband’s Jeth, or elder brother, is strictly guarded by a special taboo. There is a Behâr proverb—Latul bhainsur dewar barâbar—“a weak elder brother-in-law is like a younger brother-in-law, with whom you may take liberties.” [Prevalence of widow marriage.] 11. The statistics of the last Census fully illustrate the prevalence of widow marriage. To use Mr. Baillie’s summary of the figures [69] “of 10,000 of the total Hindu population, 331 males and 817 females are widowed, 306 males and 747 females among Muhammadans, and no less than 639 males and 1,054 females among Jains. [70] It is clear, therefore, that both males and females, but particularly the latter, re-marry more extensively amongst Muhammadans than Hindus, and very much more frequently among Hindus than amongst Jains. As regards females this is exactly what might have been expected from what is known of the social circumstances of the three religions. Muhammadans permit re-marriage alike amongst males and females, and the excess of female widowed is due to the same reasons as the excess in England. The higher proportion of widowed of both sexes as compared with England is, of course, mainly due to the higher proportion of marriages. The somewhat higher proportion of excess among Muhammadan widows over Muhammadan widowers, as compared with English figures, is probably due to the greater facilities an English widow enjoys for re-marriage. Amongst Hindus, as is well known, re-marriage is in the higher castes permitted only for males. The castes which do not permit widow marriage are roughly one-fourth of the whole, [71] so that Hindus as regards female re-marriage occupy a position between Muhammadans and Jains, but nearer the former than the latter. The latter are