[Adoption.] 11. Adoption is permitted to a sonless man or one whose son is permanently expelled from caste; but there is no idea of religious merit in adoption. The son adopted must be of the sept (kuri) of the adopter, and is in most cases a brother’s son. Having once adopted he cannot adopt again as long as the adopted son is alive. A bachelor, an ascetic, or a blind man cannot adopt, nor can a married woman without the leave of her husband, and under no circumstances has the widow this power. A man may give his eldest, but not his only son, in adoption to another. There is no condition of age in the boy to be adopted. Girls cannot be adopted. The adopted son is not excluded from succeeding to his natural father, and will do so if he have no other son. If a natural son be born after adoption, both share equally in the estate. These are the rules as stated in a meeting of the caste, but they obviously represent the influence of their Hindu neighbours. It is very doubtful if the real Agariyas have any idea of adoption. [Succession.] 12. The rules of succession are very similar to those of the Mânjhis (q.v.). When a man dies leaving a widow or widows, a son or sons, a daughter or daughters, brothers or other relatives, the sons alone inherit, and primogeniture is so far observed that the eldest son gets one animal or article, an ox, a brass pot, etc., in excess of the others. The sons take their shares per capita. When a man leaves only a sonless widow, his brothers inherit with the obligation of maintaining the widow for her lifetime or until she marries again. She can be expelled for unchastity. Stepsons inherit only the amount of their father’s property which their step-father may have received, but he is bound to support and marry them. Many of the elaborate rules which the tribe pretend to observe are derived from Hindu practice; and it is obvious that it is seldom difficult for an Agariya to dispose of his simple property. [Relationship.] 13. The relations of the husband are regarded as relations of the wife, and vice versâ. The scheme of relationship agrees with that of the Kols (q.v.).