Hi THE OLD KUKI CLANS 155

than a pig and a piece of iron a cubit in length, but the girl's
relatives try to get as much more as they can. The bridegroom
has also to feast the family of his bride three times on pork,
fowls, and rice, washed down, of course, with plenty of zu. The
Chiru girls are only valued at one gong.

Among the other clans, marriage is by simple purchase. A
Chawte maiden can be obtained for a spear, a dao,, and a fowl,
the payment being sealed by the consumption of much zu.
The price of a Kolhen girl is a gong and Es. 7/- to her mother,
and Es. 7/- each to the elder and younger brother and the
maternal uncle. This is most curious, for the father is entirely
omitted. Can it be a survival of mother right ? The Kom
girls are valued very high, the father receiving one gong, four
buffaloes, fifteen cloths, a hoe, and a spear, the aunt taking a
black and white cloth. A Lamgamg bridegroom has to pay his
father-in-law three pigs or buffaloes or cows, one string of conch
shell beads, one lead bracelet, and one black or blue petticoat.
A Tikhup father expects a gong, ten hoes, one dao, and one
spear; the maternal grandfather also demands Rs. *7/-.

The price of a Vaiphei girl varies between two and ten
mithan. To a certain extent the price of the girls may be
taken as. an indication of the relative importance of the clan.
Marriage by servitude is not found among either the Lushai or
the Thado clans ; its appearance among the Old Kukis is there-
fore curious, for as a rule the customs of a clan will be found to
resemble those of one or the other of these two main divisions
of the Kuki-Lushai race.

Polygamy is, as a rule, permitted. Among the Anal and
Lamgang, the first wife is entitled to the company of her
husband for five nights, the second for four, and the third for
three. It is not quite clear how a second marriage by servitude
can be carried out, and probably the rules are modified in such
cases. Polygamy is but little practised on account of the
expense; among the Kolhen it is prohibited.

In most of these clans the Thado rule of inheritance is
followed—viz., the eldest son takes all his father's property, the
younger sons only getting what the heir chooses to give them.
Among the Anal and Purum, and probably also the Lamgang,
the sons of the deceased divide the property, but the youngest