ADOPTION. ;,7 



therefrom a shoe be made. The father shall let the one to be 

 adopted step into it, and have in his arms those of his sons 

 who are not of age, but those of his sons who are full-grown 

 shall step into that shoe. If he has no inheritance-born sons 

 those who are his nearest heirs shall step into the shoe. The 

 adopted man shall be led into the embrace of the man and the 

 wife. Women shall be witnesses as well as a man to a full 

 adoption, as well as to the shoe if it is kept. The thrall-born 

 son to whom liberty is given shall be adopted if either father 

 or brother, or whoever is nearest heir, whether he is young or 

 old, gives him his liberty, and those being the nearest heirs of 

 the man who wants to adopt him assent. The son of a freed 

 woman shall be adopted like that of a thrall-woman " (Earlier 

 Frostathing's Law, ix.). 



" No man is allowed to give away an inheritance ; a 

 fraudulent bargain shall be reckoned as no bargain. The 

 father who adopts his own son shall step into the shoe, and 

 then his full-grown son. That is a full adoption. If there is 

 no son the one who consents to the adoption shall step into 

 the shoe. Then he who consents to his octal rights shall step 

 into the shoe. He shall say this : ' I lead this man to the 

 property which I give him, to payment and gift, to seat and 

 settle, to indemnities and rings, and to all rett as if his mother 

 had been bought with mund " (Earlier Gulathings Law, c. 58). 



The father 1 had then to declare that he led the adopted son 

 into the share of the inheritance which he gave him, and with 

 the same rights as if his mother had been lawfully wed. Those 

 present had to bear witness to this leading into the family, as 

 also to the use of the shoe, by means of which it had been 

 done. 



The Gulathings Law required the adopted to publicly 

 announce his adoption at the Thing every twenty years, until 

 he stepped into his inheritance. 



" A man shall announce publicly his adoption every twenty 

 winters until he gets his inheritance, which shall thereafter be 

 Ms witness " (Gulath., 58). 



" A woman could adopt as well as a man, but she could not 

 adopt her illegitimate son, nor a man his illegitimate 

 daughter. 



1 Kinsmen on the father's side arc preferred to kinsmen on the mother's side. 



