1 208 APPENDIX — WIDOWS.
2 Amongst all the Jat families,t and some others of the
3 lower classes in the Punjab, a custom prevails, on the
4 demise of one brother leaving a widow, for a surviving
5 brother to take his sister-in-law to wife by Kurawah or
6 Chadurdalna, (see inheritance.) The offspring by the
7 connexion are legitimate, and entitled to succeed to a
8 share of all the landed and personal property.;]: It is
9 optional with the widow, to take, either the eldest,
10 (Jeth), or the youngest, who is generally preferred and
11 deemed most suitable. Should she determine to relin-
12 quish worldly ideas, and to reside chaste in her father-
13 in-law's house, she may adopt this course; but such
14 instances are very rare, particularly in the case of young
15 females, and are not to be looked for in a society, and
16 amongst tribes, notorious for the laxity of their morals
17 and for the degeneracy of their conceptions.
18 In default of surviving brothers, and in accordance
19 with acknowledged usage, the widow is at the disposal
20 of her father-in-law's family : From the moment she has
21 quitted the paternal roof, she is considered to have been
22 assigned as the property of another, and ceases to have
23 a free will. Where the Hymeneal bond is so loosely and
24 irrationally knit, it is not a matter of surprise, that the
25 feeble tie and servile obligation, which unite the wife
26 t Intermarriages between the Jat Sikh Chiefs, and the Aloowaleah
27 and Ranigurhcah families, do not obtain, the latter being KuMs and
28 Tliokas (mace bearers and carpenters) and deemed inferior.
29 i The present Rajah of Nabah, Juswunt Singh, and six oftheSingh-
30 Pooreah Chiefs, are by a connubial union of this nature. Malia Raja
31 RuNjEET Singh has gone some steps furtlier : He took by Kurauiik
32 a lady betrothed to his father Maha Singh : He has also taken Dva
33 KooNwuR and Rutun Koonwur, the widows of Saheb Singh, the chief of
34 Goojrat, his own uncle-in-law.