of the heirs claims that the valuation of an article is too low, then he is asked to value it himself and accept it as part of his share at the higher valuation. The effect of this rule is that goods go to whoever is prepared to value them most highly, giving the division something of the nature of an auction sale, and ensuring, so I was told, that everyone is satisfied, or at least can only blame himself if he is not. Small differences between the final total value of the shares are adjusted by cash.
The division between brothers may be complicated by the need to provide for a widow, or even two. The villagers say that the Seriat provides for an eighth-share for a widow and the Turkish Civil Code for a quarter-share, in which they are roughly correct.1 But neither of these rules seems to be applied. Occasionally, the division is postponed until after the mother's death. Otherwise the widow simply lives with one son without taking a definite share - she may of course own land in her own right which passes to the household in which she lives - or in other cases a widow appears to have accepted a non-legal compromise arrangement for her own lifetime. Such a peaceful settlement of the family affairs without a public quarrel carries considerable prestige.
Inheritance: Daughters The real complications and many of the disputes about inheritance arise out of the claims of daughters. These claims are generally admitted to be formally valid, but they are by no means always accepted or enforced.
Daughters have often married to other villages, or have a sufficiency in their marital households. Time and again, men said that to interfere on behalf of one's wife's claims was mean and undignified, and that it was entirely up to the wife herself what she did about it. `What my father left me is enough for me', as one man remarked, is clearly the socially approved attitude, even if its expression is at times disingenuous. The fact