Though so common among Changs and Semas, adoption is practically unknown among the Lhotas. One reason is that there are very few people poor enough to be willing to be adopted, and another that while among the Semas and Changs an adopted man and his descendants become practically the serfs of their adopter, among the Lhotas the chances of material gain for the adopter are few. Adoption of a girl seems to be unknown. There are generally relations of some kind ready to bring her up and get her marriage price. But boys are very occasionally adopted. Supposing A adopts B, he becomes to all intents and purposes A’s son, and enters A’s clan, though he can never marry a woman from the clan out of which he was adopted. A has to find a wife for B and pay his marriage price, yet if B has a son, the son inherits B’s property, A only inheriting if B has no sons. There is no ceremony of adoption. Settlement of Disputes. When a quarrel arises between two villages, messengers are sent to fix a day, and if both sides so agree the elders of the respective villages meet on the path half-way between the two villages and settle the matter, exchanging drinks of “madhu” and eating together. If the responsibility for the quarrel can be fixed on any individual he is fined, and the fine either divided among the elders of both villages, or given to the village against which the wrong was done. In the old days villages such as Okotso and the Ao village of Nankam were in a chronic state of war. It would occasionally happen that Okotso decided to cut their fields which lay towards Nankam in the same year as Nankam decided to cut their fields towards Okotso. Obviously cultivation would be impossible for either side unless a peace of some kind were patched up. The elders of both villages would feast together on the boundary, and an armistice would be agreed upon to remain in force till those fields were finally reaped, when the game of war would go on as before. All preliminary negotiations between villages actually at war were carried on by ambassadors (lantsalanpeng), of which there were two in each village. These had a permanent safe-conduct, and it was believed that to kill one would bring dire misfortune on the slayer and his village. The same custom exists among Aos, Changs and Phoms.