1 80 POPULATION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS.
2 native of sacrificing her claims to her brother-in-
3 law, and taking her station amongst his rival
4 wives. Judging from the masculine disposition,
5 want of modesty, and of delicate feeling, which
6 form the characteristic feature of Sikh females,
7 necessity, and not choice, must have led them to
8 yield to the adoption of an usage, which must
9 often be repugnant to their natures, and disgust-
10 ing to their thoughts.
11 " On failure of brothers and nephews, the gene-
12 ral practice is equal division of lands and per-
13 sonal effects amongst the surviving widows of
14 Manjhee Singhs. Adoption by the widows is
15 not allowed, and the female line is entirely
16 excluded from the succession, to prevent the
17 estates merging in the possessions of another
18 family. The inconvenience and evil, originating
19 in the prevailing practice amongst the Manjhee
20 families, of successive and minute subdivisions of
21 landed property, aggravated by the system of
22 coparcenary possession, are seen, felt, and ac-
23 succession, to \7hich the widow or widows become competitors.
24 According to the Shasters (if they may be considered applicable
25 to public property and chiefships), the prior title of the widows
26 is held ; but the Sikhs, with a view to avoid an open and direct
27 violation of a known law, have a custom termed kurawa, or
28 chadurdalna, which obtains in every family, with the exception
29 to those of the Bhaees, the eldest surviving brother of the
30 deceased places a white robe over, and the neeth, or ring, in the
31 nose of the widow, which ceremony constitutes her his wife."