A well-to-do Lhota usually has two or often three wives. Very occasionally a man will have four or even five. All are of equal status, though the oldest wife naturally occupies a position of some authority in the household. The husband usually sleeps with her in the middle room. It is forbidden for him to have connection with more than one wife on the same night. Possibly a vestige of a former system of group marriage is found in the custom of a Lhota who expects to be away from home for some time giving his brother permission to have marital relations with his wife during his absence. [159] On a man’s death his widow or widows are expected to go to his brother, who will not, however, receive them into his house till all the ornaments on the dead man’s grave have been cleared away and he has finally gone to the Land of the Dead. A man who thus takes his dead brother’s wife performs no marriage ceremony and pays no marriage price. If the woman marries a man of another clan, the late husband’s clan realize from the new husband a marriage price equal to the original marriage price. If a woman does not wish to marry again she may keep one of her husband’s mithan heads instead of putting it on his grave. This is equivalent to a vow of perpetual widowhood. The money which is paid by the husband for his wife is known collectively as oman (marriage-price), but is divided into a number of items. The first payment of all is known as chüka, and is paid not to the girl’s parents, but to her mother’s father or mother’s brother. The amount is Re. 1. This is paid as soon as tsoyuta has taken place. The second item is nzuiman (Rs. 8 to Rs. 10), paid to the girl’s parents as the cost of bringing her up. Thirdly comes nvaman (Rs. 10), the price of not working in his father-in-law’s house. The fourth payment is kitsoman (Rs. 2), the price of not building his father-in-law’s house. The third and fourth items are of course only paid in cases where the bridegroom prefers to pay compensation rather than work in his father-in-law’s house. The fifth item is halamman, the cost of the pork given to the father-in-law at the halam ceremony. The sixth is tsangchüman (Rs. 2), paid in cases where the bridegroom does not distribute wood to members of his father-in-law’s clan. The seventh is sontsoman (four annas), paid if the bridegroom does not build a granary for his father-in-law. The eighth is tsoroman (Re. 1), the price of the bride’s breasts, and the ninth lentamoman (Re. 1), price of intimacy with the bride. Men with land usually let the girl’s parents cut one field once. If not, a tenth payment of one rupee or two rupees is made instead. The eleventh item is otyai-etsoman (the price of feeding the bride’s brothers), the marriage-price proper. This is shared by the girl’s father and brothers. It amounts to about two hundred and fifty baskets of rice, or thirty rupees if paid in cash. The rice or money is paid in instalments, often at long intervals.