2. The Roman custom of adoption, by which a per- son, not having children of his own, might adopt as his son one born of other parents, was a formal act, effected either by the process named adror/atio, when
ADOPTION
IS
ADOPTION.
the person to be adopted was independent of his parent, or by adopt io, specifically so called, when in the power of his parent. The effect of it was that the adopted child was entitled to the name and sacra pricata of his new father, and ranked as his heir at law ; while the father, on his part, was entitled to the property of the son, and exercised toward him all the rights and priv- ileges of a father. In short, the relationship was to all intents and purposes the same as existed between a natural father and son. (See Smith's Diet, of Class. Antiq. s. v. Adoption.) — Smith, s. v.
3. The custom of adoption is still frequent in the East. Lady Montague says (Letter xlii), "There is one custom peculiar to their country, I mean adoption, very common among the Turks, and yet more among the Greeks and Armenians. Not having it in their power to give their estate to a friend or distant rela- tion, to avoid its falling into the grand seignior's treas- ury, when they are not likely to have any children of their own, they choose some pretty child of either sex among the meanest people, and cany the child and its parents before the cadi, and there declare they receive it for their heir. The parents at the same time renounce all future claim to it ; a writing is drawn and witnessed, and a child thus adopted cannot be disinherited. Yet I have seen some common beg- gars that have refused to part with their children in this manner to some of the richest among the Greeks (so powerful is the instinctive affection that is natural to parents) ; though the adopting fathers are general- ly very tender to those children of their souls, as they call them. Methinks it is much more reasonable to make happy and rich an infant whom I educate after my own manner, brought up (in the Turkish phrase) upon my knees, and who has learned to look upon me with a filial respect, than to give an estate to a crea- ture without merit or relation to me."
Among the Mohammed ins the ceremony of adoption is sometimes performed by causing the adopted to pass through the shirt of the person who adopts him. Hence, to adopt is among the Turks expressed by say- ing "to draw any one through one's shirt;" and they call an adopted son Alchret Ogli, the son of another life, because he was not begotten in this (D'Herbelot, Bill. Orient. 43). Something like this is observable among the Hebrews : Elijah adopts Elisha by throw- ing his mantle over him (1 Kings xix, 19) ; and when Elijah was carried off in a fiery chariot, his mantle, which he let fall, was taken up by Elisha, his disci- ple, his spiritual son, and adopted successor in the of- fice of prophet (2 Kings ii, 15). It should be remark- ed, also, that Elisha asks not merely to be adopted (for that he had been already), but to be treated as the elder son, to have a double portion (the elder son's pre- rogative) of the spirit conferred upon him. See In- vestiture.
There is another method of ratifying the act of adoption, however, which is worthy of notice, as it tends to illustrate some passages in the sacred writ- ings. The following is from Pitts : " I was bought by an old bachelor; I wanted nothing with him; meat, drink, and clothes, and money, I had enough. After I had lived with him about a year, he made his pilgrimage to Mecca, and carried mo with him ; but before we came to Alexandria, he was taken sick, and thinking verily he should die, having a woven girdle about his middle, under his sash (which the}' usually wear), in which was much gold, and also my letter of freedom (which he intended to give me when at Mec- ca), he took it off, and bid me put it on about me, and took my girdle, and put it on himself. My patron would speak, on occasion, in my behalf, saying, My Sox will never run away. He seldom called me an}' thing but son, and bought a Dutch boy to do the work of the house, who attended upon me, and obeyed my orders as much as his. I often saw several bags of his money, a great part of which he said he would leave
me." This circumstance seems to illustrate the conduct of Moses, who clothed Eleazar in Aaron's sacred vest- ments when that high-priest was about to be gathered to his fathers ; indicating thereby that Eleazar suc- ceeded in the functions of the priesthood, and was, as it were, adopted to exercise that dignity. The Lord told Shebna, captain of the temple, that he would de- prive him of his honorable station, and substitute Eli- akim, son of Hilkiah (Isa. xxii, 21): "/ will clothe him with thy robe, saith the Lord, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand." And Paul in several places says, that Christians '"'•put on the Lord Jesus; that they put on the new man,'''' to denote their adoption as sons of God (Rom. xiii, 14; Gal. iii, 27; Ephes. iv, 24; Col. hi, 10 ; comp. John i, 12 ; 1 John iii, 2). See Sox. When Jonathan made a covenant with David, he stripped himself of his girdle and his robe and put them upon his friend (1 Sam. xviii, 3).— Taylor's Calmet, s. v.