[Adoption.] 17. Adoption prevails; and, as long as there is a sister’s son available for adoption, no other relative can be selected. A man may adopt, if his only son is disqualified from succession by being permanently excluded from caste, or if he have lost his faith (dharm). Adoption, while a son is alive, is forbidden. A widower may adopt, but it is forbidden in the case of a woman, a bachelor, or a man who is blind, impotent, or crippled. A widow can adopt only with the express permission of her late husband, and not if her husband have adopted a son during his lifetime. A man may adopt his nephew at any age; but in the case of an outsider the child adopted must not be more than twelve years of age. The boy adopted must, in any case, be of the same gotra as his adoptive father. The adoption of a sister’s son is prohibited; as a rule a man adopts the son of his brother or daughter. Adoption is performed in the presence of and with the advice and approval of, the assembled brethren. The man and his wife take their seats in the assembly, and the wife takes the boy into her lap and acknowledges him as her own child. A distribution of food or sweetmeats follows and concludes the ceremony. There is no custom analogous to Beena marriage recognised where the bridegroom is taken into the household of his father-in-law and serves for his bride. They follow, as a rule, the Hindu law of succession. [Domestic ceremonies. Birth.] 18. There are no observances during pregnancy. When the child is born the Chamârin midwife is called in; she cuts the umbilical cord and buries it on the spot where the birth occurred, lighting a fire and fixing up a piece of iron—a guard against evil spirits. The mother gets no food that day, and next morning she is dosed with a mixture of ginger, turmeric and treacle. The Chamârin attends for six days, and after bathing the mother and child she is dismissed with a present of two-and-a-half sers of grain and two annas in cash. Then the barber’s wife attends, who cuts the nails of the mother and child and dyes the soles of their feet with lac. The purification of the confinement room is done by the sister of the father of the child, who gets a present for the service. The father does not cohabit with his wife for two months after her delivery.