action of recovery brought by the adoptive father against the
natural parent, which the latter did not defend, and which was
therefore known as the cessio in jure. Adrogation could
be accomplished originally only by the authority of the people
assembled in the Comitia, but from the time of Diocletian
it was effected by an imperial rescript. Females could not be
adrogated, and, as they did not possess the patria potestas,
they could not exercise the right of adoption in either
kind. The whole Roman law on the subject of adoption will
be found in Justinian's Institutes, lib. i. tit. II.
In Hindu law, as in nearly every ancient system, wills
were formerly unknown, and adoptions took their place. (See
INDIAN LAW.) Adoption is not recognized in the laws of
England, Scotland or the Netherlands, though there are legal
means by which one may be enabled to assume the name and
arms and to inherit the property of a stranger. (See NAME.)
In France and Germany, countries which may he said to have
embodied the Roman law in their jurisprudence, adoption is
regulated according to the principles of Justinian, though
with several more or less important modifications, rendered
necessary by the usages of these countries respectively. Under
French law the rights of adoption can be exercised only by
those who are over fifty years of age, and who, at the time of
adoption, have neither children nor legitimate descendants.
They must also be fifteen years older than the person adopted.
In German law the person adopting must either be fifty years of
age, or at least eighteen years older than the adopted, unless
a special dispensation is obtained. If the person adopted
is a legitimate child, the consent of his parents must be
obtained; if illegitimate, the consent of the mother. Both in
Germany and France the adopted child remains a member of his
original family, and acquires no rights in the family of the
adopter other than that of succession to the person adopting.
In the United States adoption is regulated by the statutes
of the several states. Adoption of minors is permitted by
statute in many of the states. These statutes generally require
some public notice to be given of the intention to adopt,
and an order of approval after a hearing before some public
authority. The consequence commonly is that the person adopted
becomes, in the eyes of the law, the child of the person
adopting, for all purposes. Such an adoption, if consummated
according to the law of the domicile, is equally effectual
in any other state into which the parties may remove. The
relative status thus newly acquired is ubiquitous. (See Whitmore,
Laws of Adoption; Ross v. Ross, 129 Massachusetts Reports,
243.) The part played by the legal fiction of adoption in the
constitution of primitive society and the civilization of the
race is so important, that Sir Henry S. Maine, in his Ancient
Law, expresses the opinion that, had it never existed, the
primitive groups of mankind could not have coalesced except
on terms of absolute superiority on the one side and absolute
subjection on the other. With the institution of adoption,
however, one people might feign itself as descended from the
same stock as the people to whose sacra gentilicia it was
admitted; and amicable relations were thus established between
stocks which, but for this expedient, must have submitted
to the arbitrament of the sword with all its consequences.
ADORATION (Lat. ad, to, and os, mouth; i.e. ``carrying
to one's mouth''), primarily an act of homage or worship,
which, among the Romans, was performed by raising the hand
to the mouth, kissing it and then waving it in the direction
of the adored object. The devotee had his head covered,
and after the act turned himself round from left to right.
Sometimes he kissed the feet or knees of the images of the gods
themselves, and Saturn and Hercules were adored with the head
bare. By a natural transition the homage, at first paid to
divine beings alone, came to be paid to monarchs. Thus the
Greek and Roman emperors were adored by bowing or kneeling,
laying hold of the imperial robe, and presently withdrawing
the hand and pressing it to the lips, or by putting the royal
robe itself to the lips. In Eastern countries adoration has
ever been performed in an attitude still more lowly. The
Persian method, introduced by Cyrus, was to bend the knee
and fall on the face at the prince's feet, striking the earth
with the forehead and kissing the ground. This striking of
the earth with the forehead, usually a fixed number of times,
is the form of adoration usually paid to Eastern potentates
to-day. The Jews kissed in homage. Thus in 1 Kings xix.
18, God is made to say, ``Yet I have left me seven thousand
in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal,
and every mouth which hath not kissed him.'' And in Psalms
ii. 12, ``Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish
from the way.'' (See also Hosea xiii. 2.) In England the
ceremony of kissing the sovereign's hand, and some other acts
which are performed kneeling, may be described as forms of
adoration. Adoration is applied in the Roman Church to the
ceremony of kissing the pope's foot, a custom which is said
to have been introduced by the popes following the example
of the emperor Diocletian. The toe of the famous statue of
the apostle in St Peter's, Rome, shows marked wear caused by
the kisses of pilgrims. In the Roman Church a distinction
is made between Latria, a worship due to God alone, and
Dulia or Hyperdulia, the adoration paid to the Virgin,
saints, martyrs, crucifixes, &c. (See further HOMAGE.)
ADORF, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, 3 m. from
the Bohemian frontier, at an elevation of 1400 ft. above the
sea, on the Plauen-Eger and Aue-Adorf lines of railway. Pop.
5000. It has lace, dyeing and tanning industries, and
manufactures of toys and musical instruments; and there is
a convalescent home for the poor of the city of Leipzig.
ADOUR (anc. Aturrus or Adurus, from Celtic dour,
water), a river of south-west France, rising in the department
of Hautes Pyrenees, and flowing in a wide curve to the Bay of
Biscay. It is formed of several streams having their origin
in the massif of the Pic d'Arbizon and the Pic du Midi de
Bigorre, but during the first half of its course remains an
inconsiderable river. In traversing the beautiful valley of
Campan it is artificially augmented in summer by the waters
of the Lac Bleu, which are drawn off by means of a siphon, and
flow down the valley of I esponne. After passing Bagneres
de Bigorre the Adour enters the plain of Tarbes, and for the
remainder of its course in the department of Hautes Pyrenees
is of much less importance as a waterway than as a means
of feeding the numerous irrigation canals which cover the
plains on each side. Of these the oldest and most important
is the Canal d'Alaric, which follows the right bank for 36
m. Entering the department of Gers, the Adour receives the
Arros on the right bank and begins to describe the large westward
curve which takes it through the department of Landes to the
sea. In the last-named department it soon becomes navigable,
namely, at St Sever, after passing which it is joined on the
left by the Larcis, Gabas, Louts and Luy, and on the right
by the Midouze, which is formed by the union of the Douze
and the Midour, and is navigable for 27 m.; now taking a
south-westerly course it receives on the left the Gave de
Pau, which is a more voluminous river than the Adour itself,
and flowing past Bayonne enters the sea through a dangerous
estuary, in which sandbars are formed, after a total course
of 208 m., of which 82 are navigable. The mouth of the
Adout has repeatedly shifted. its old bed being represented
by the series of etangs and lagoons extending northward
as far as the village of Vieux Boucau, 22 1/2 m. north of
Bayonne, where it found a new entrance into the sea at the
end of the 14th century. Its previous mouth had been 10 m.
south of Vieux Boucau. The present channel was constructed
by the engineer Louis de Foix in 1579. There is a depth
over the bar at the entrance of 10 1/2 to 16 ft. at high
tide. The area of the basin of the Adour is 6565 sq. m.
ADOWA (properly ADUA), the capital of Tigre, northern
Abyssinia, 145 m. N.E. of Gondar and 17 m. E. by N. of Axum,
the ancient capital of Abyssinia. Adowa is built on the slope
of a hill at an elevation of 6500 ft., in the midst of a rich
agricultural district. Being on the high road from Massawa
to central Abyssinia, it is a meeting-place of merchants from
Arabia and the Sudan for the exchange of foreign merchandise
with the products of the country. During the wars between
the Italians and Abyssinia (1887-96) Adowa was on three or
four occasions looted and burnt; but the churches escaped
destruction. The church of the Holy Trinity, one of the
largest in Abyssinia, contains numerous wall-paintings of
native art. On a hill about 2 1/2 m. north-west of Adowa are
the ruins of Fremona, the headquarters of the Portuguese
Jesuits who lived in Abyssinia during the 16th and 17th
centuries. On the 1st of March 1896, in the hills north
of the town, was fought the battle of Adowa, in which the
Abyssinians inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italian
forces (see ITALY, History, and ABYSSINIA, History).
ADRA (anc. Abdera), a seaport of southern Spain, in the
province of Almeria; at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Adra, and
on the Mediterranean Sea. Pop. (1900) 11,188. Adra is the port
of shipment for the lead obtained near Berja, 10 m. north-east;
but its commercial development is retarded by the lack of a
railway. Besides lead, the exports include grapes, sugar and
esparto. Fuel is imported, chieffly from the United Kingdom.
ADRAR (Berber for ``uplands''), the name of various
districts of the Saharan desert, Northern Africa. Adrar
Suttuf is a hilly region forming the southern part of the
Spanish protectorate of the Rio de Oro (q.v.). Adrar or
Adrar el Jebli, otherwise Adghagh, is a plateau north-east of
Timbuktu. It is the headquarters of the Awellimiden
Tuareg (see TUAREG and SAHARA). Adrar n'Ahnet and Adrar
Adhafar are smaller regions in the Ahnet country south of
Insalah. Adrar Temur, the country usually referred to when
Adrar is spoken of, is in the western Sahara, 300 m. north
of the Senegal and separated on the north-west from Adrar
Suttuf by wide valleys and sand dunes. Adrar is within the
French sphere of influence. In general barren, the country
contains several oases, with a total population of about
10,000. In 1900 the oasis of Atar, on the western borders
of the territory, was reached by Paul Blanchet, previously
known for his researches on ancient Berber remains in Algeria.
(Blanchet died in Senegal on the 6th of October 1900, a
few days after his return from Adrar.) Atar is inhabited
by Yrab and Berber tribes, and is described as a wretched
spot. The other centres of population are Shingeti, Wadan and
Ujeft, Shingeti being the chief commercial centre, whence
caravans take to St Louis gold-dust, ostrich feathers and
dates. A considerable trade is also done in salt from the
sebkha of Ijil, in the north-west. Adrar occupies the most
elevated part of a plateau which ends westwards in a steep
escarpment and falls to the east in a succession of steps.
Adrar or Adgar is also the name sometimes given to the chief
settlement in the oasis of Tuat in the Algerian Sahara.
ADRASTUS, in Greek legend, was the son of Talaus, king of
Argos, and Lysianassa, daughter of Polybus, king of Sicyon.
