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Chapter II. 
INHERITANCE OP PROPERTY. 
The.property of an intestate person, should he leave no legal heirs, 
escheats to the King, who contrives generally to get a portion of the 
estate of every person deceased. Wilis are written or made verbal¬ 
ly, in the presence of competent witnesses; and may not be con¬ 
founded with alienation by Gift. Real and personal property may 
be willed and gifted away to any one, and, as lieriditaments, descend 
to, and are without distinction divided amongst, the heirs at Law. 
The laws of inheritance are considered as applying chiefly to Heads of 
families. Under this view, the property of a man deceased, is divi¬ 
ded into three portions. One goes to the parents and grand pa¬ 
rents, one to the widow, and the third to the children, and other re- 
latives on the man’s side, according to priority. * But should 
the man not have cohabited so long as 3 years with his wife, she will 
only receive one third of a. portion or part. Before proceeding 
further it may be as well that the forms required by Law relative to 
the inheritance of property be described. 
When a man dies Ids relatives must give immediate information to 
the Sam6 Mai'addk or Registrar of Estates of deceased Persons. The 
digests contain long lists of rules for the realizing and preservation 
of such estates, but which are too tedious to be here detailed. 
A registry to have been valid must have been made in presence of 
a Sena Bddee, a corruption apparently of the Indian Scnapatty , a 
Moon, a Koon, and a Montree, Officers of the rank of 1000 na-a 
or fields, or of a similar number of Officers whose ranks vary from 
600 to 400 na-a. The distribution of the property takes effect after 
the solemnization of the obsequies; and should a claimant having 
the power, and opportunity so to do, neglect to put in his claim pre¬ 
vious to the termination of the obsequies, be forfeits his right. 
It should seem, although it is not of course expressed, in the dig- 
* This apparently inverted order of succession is in strict conformity 
with the Digests, 
