ADOPTION. The taking of a child into a family or clan to be treated as one of its horn members often has a religious significance. In Athens and Rome sons were adopted, when necessary, not merely to perpetuate the race, but also to continue its religious rites. In China the eldest son of the principal wife occupies an important position, as the continuator of the ancestral line and the person upon whom devolves the charge of worshipping the ancestors. If the principal wife has no son, she adopts one. When adoption takes place, it is naturally celebrated by a more or less elaborate cere mony. Where importance is attached to the feeling of kinship, it has sometimes been the custom to make in cisions and mingle the blood of adopters and adopted (cp. BLOOD). Mr. E. S. Hartland thinks that in the blood-covenant (see COVENANT), we have a survival of a rite of adoption into the clan. Such a practice is not merely a formality. The thought that the blood has been mingled acts as a powerful suggestion of kin ship. Another practice is for the new mother, when a child is to be adopted, to pretend to give birth to him. Thus, when the goddess Hera adopted Hercules, she imitated a real birth. The same thing is done in Bulgaria, as well as among the Bosnian Turks and the Berawans of Sarawak. An example of a more elaborate and religious ceremony may he taken from India. Among the Brahmans, when a child is to be adopted, an aus picious day is first chosen. The portals of the house are decorated with garlands of leaves (toranams), and a pavilion (pandal) is erected. Then, when the cere monies are to begin, sacrifice is made to Vigneshwara (the god of obstacles) and the nine planets. The new
father and mother sit on a small dais in the middle of the pavilion. The real mother is given a new garment, and a sum of money as " nursing wages." Carrying her son to the adoptive father, she is asked by him whether she hands over her child to be brought up. The answer is in the affirmative. Then a dish of water with powdered saffron in it is brought in. Next the priest (purohita) blesses it, mutters some prayers or formulas (mantranis), and performs some ceremonies. After this the real mother hands the dish to the new father, invokes fire as a witness, and says, " I give up this child to you; I have no more right over him." The new father takes the child on his knees and solemnly and ceremonially promises to bring it up as his own child. He and his wife next take a little saffron water in their right hands and drink it. Then they pour some into the hand of the child who has to drink it. They conclude the ceremony by saying: " We have admitted this child into our gothram, and we incorporate him into it." Other festivities follow. The ceremony among the Sudras and the Brahmans is almost identical; the only difference being that among the Sudras the new 2 father and mother pour the saffron water on the feet of the child with one hand, while with the other they catch and drink it. See J. A. Dubois and H. K. Beau champ, Hindu Manners, etc., 1897; J. J. M. de Groot. Rel. System of China, 1894, etc.; E. S. Hartland, Legend of Perseus, 1S94-96; J. G. Frazer, G.B.; E. Westermarck.