her brother-in-law by the less regular form used in the case of widows, i.e., by sagâi. On the other hand if after marriage any defects manifest themselves in the bride her husband is bound to accept her, and if before marriage the relations of the bride were aware of any defect in the bridegroom the marriage cannot be broken. [Divorce.] 7. Adultery in the wife when proved to the satisfaction of the council is a ground for putting her away, but no evidence short of the testimony of eye-witnesses to the act of adultery is accepted. Adultery in the husband is not a ground for divorce, but if his misconduct is brought to the notice of the council they will reprimand him. Ill-treatment, again, on the part of the husband is not a ground for divorce, but the wife generally takes matters into her own hands and escapes to the house of her parents, who will not restore her until the husband gives security that the ill-usage will not be repeated. The cost of brides acts, it is needless to say, as a check on ill-usage or desertion. [100] A divorced wife is allowed to marry again by the sagâi form with the permission of the council. [Widow marriage and the levirate.] 8. Widows can many again by the form known as sagâi, and women are so valuable that every young widow if not taken over by her brother-in-law is married to some one else. If a man wishes to marry a widow he must secure her consent and that of her relations. When this is granted he takes for her a set of palm-leaf earrings (tarki), brass arm rings (churla), and glass bangles (chûri). These he puts on the widow, takes her home, and gives a feast to the clansmen of goat’s flesh and rice. This feast is called after the earrings tarki bhât. The levirate prevails under the usual restriction that it is only the younger brother of the husband who can claim the widow of his elder brother. If he resigns his claim she can marry an outsider: she takes with her to her new home only infant children of her first husband. The others are taken care of by the brother of their father. The widow has no right to succeed her late husband: his heirs are his sons, or, in default of sons, his brother. In the case of the levirate there is no fiction that the children of the second marriage are affiliated to the first husband. As a rule all marriageable widows are taken either in the levirate or remarried by sagâi. [Adoption.] 9. The tribe profess to have elaborate rules of adoption, which are, however, clearly derived from an imitation of the practice of their Hindu neighbours. There is no religious idea about adoption. All that is certain is that only a sonless man can adopt, that he must adopt in his own sept, and that almost as a matter of course he adopts his brother’s son. The uncertainty of the conception of adoption is shown in the fact that the adopted son is allowed to retain his right of succession in the property of his natural father.