JUSTICE IN NEPAL. 125 



rules the judgment-seat in all cases of application to it. Amongst 

 the Khds tribe, if a person have a son born in wedlock, that son 

 is his heir: if he have no such son, his brothers and brother's male 

 descendants are his heirs : his married daughters, or their progeny, never. 

 If he have a virgin daughter, she is entitled to a marriage portion and no 

 more. If he have a son by a concubine, and after his death his brothers 

 and descendants do not conceal the deceased's wealth, but fairly state it to 

 the bastard son, and give him a reasonable portion, the bastard son must, 

 in such case, take what they give him, and he can get no more in any 

 court ; but if they conceal the deceased's wealth, and put off the bastard 

 son with idle tales, assigning him no share whatever, then the bastard son, 

 if he appeal to the courts, shall have all the deceased's property assigned to 

 him, to the total exclusion of the family so attempting to defraud him. 

 In short, the son by a concubine must have a reasonable share allotted to 

 him by the family, though the exact amount will rest with them. If a Kh&s 

 have a son, he cannot alienate a single rupee from him by will, either of 

 ancestral or acquired wealth, save only, and in moderation, to pious uses ; 

 neither can a Khcis adopt a son not of his kindred and make him his heir, 

 if he have near blood relations. His first choice lies among his brother's 

 sons and nearest relatives in the male line ; his next among his daughter's 

 sons and their male progeny : a stranger he can never adopt. 



The Magar, Gurung, Murmi, and Kairanti tribes agree with the 

 Khds in respect to inheritance, adoption, and wills. 



The Siva- Mar gy section of the Newdrs agrees mostly with the Par- 

 hattiahs on all these heads. The Suddha-Margy section have some rule of 

 their own. Among the Newdrs of both persuasions, the son by a concu- 

 bine gets one-sixth of the share of a son born in wedlock. 



When cases of dispute on these topics are brought into court, the 

 judge calls for the sentiments of the most respectable of the tribe to which 

 the litigants belong, and follows their statement of the custom of their 

 tribe. 



2 H 



