ABSTRACT
Children are much desired, and I suspect that there was once a religious motive as well as the natural ones of protection from the sons and of gain through the marriage of the daughters, but the reason given now is that if a man dies without any children, some, if not all, of his property goes to the chief. On account of this, adoption is recommended, but since the descendants of the adopted son are said to bless the adopting parent, and to remember him at meal-times, I think the reason given in Hausa Superstitions and Customs (p. 96)—i.e. that the descendants were necessary in order to carry on ancestor-worship—is the correct one. 1
