340 
INHERITANCE OF PROPER!’V, 
the two remaining portions,—(the form of first separating the Es¬ 
tate into three parts, being always adhered to.) The same principle 
regulates the division where there are no claimants to either of the 
other two shares. A son or daughter having received a marriage 
portion from a parent dining that parent’s lifetime, will not be enti¬ 
tled to share in his Estate, unless a paucity of near relatives gives a 
title thereto. In fact he or she will only, in either supposition, be 
entitled to such a part of the property as would by lato fall to be 
shared by either; and if the marriage portion should happen to be 
less than that part, the deficiency is made up at the division of the 
property. 
A Siamese is not restricted to one wife, polygamy being authorize 
eel by Law. Concubinage is also common; hence it is enacted that 
if one of a couple who have long cohabited without having been mar¬ 
ried, survives the other, he, or she, will only be entitled to claim a 
small part of the Estate of the deceased depending on the generosity 
of surviving relatives. 
A man or woman marrying without the consent of parents, will 
forfeit all right to inherit. This principle is extended to other 
branches. The paternal authority is enforced very strongly in Siam. 
A person going to a distant country without consent of parents can¬ 
not claim any portion of inheritance at their decease ; unless it be 
proved either that he returned to minister to their wants during their 
illness, or at any rate that he attended the solemnization of funeral 
rites. There is in all this much in common with the Chinese laws. 
It would appear that under lawful and ordinary circumstances, a 
person remaining ten years absent from his country without intelli¬ 
gence being obtained of him, cannot afterwards lay claim to property, 
which if present he might have inherited. 
