登陆注册
20041600000016

第16章 CHAPTER Adoption(2)

To foreigners it proves disastrously perplexing. For if you chance upon a man whom you have not met for some time, you can never be quite sure how to accost him. If you begin, "Well met, Green, how goes it?" as likely as not he replies, "Finely. But I am no longer Green; I have become Brown. I was adopted last month by my maternal grandfather." You of course apologize for your unfortunate mistake, carefully note his change of hue for a future occasion, and behold, on meeting him the next time you find he has turned Black. Such a chameleon-like cognomen is very unsettling to your idea of his identity, and can hardly prove reassuring to his own. The only persons who reap any benefit from the doubt are those, with us unhappy, individuals who possess the futile faculty of remembering faces without recalling their accompanying names.

Girls, as a rule, are not adopted, being valueless genealogically.

A niece or grandniece to whom one has taken a great fancy might of course be adopted there as elsewhere, but it would be distinctly out of the every-day run, as she could never be included in the household on strict business principles.

The practice of adopting is not confined to childless couples.

Others may find themselves in quite as unfortunate a predicament.

A man may be the father of a large and thriving family and yet be as destitute patriarchally as if he had not a child to his name.

His offspring may be of the wrong sex; they may all be girls.

In this untoward event the father has something more on his hands than merely a houseful of daughters to dispose of. In addition to securing sons-in-law, he must, unless he would have his ancestral line become extinct, provide himself with a son. The simplest procedure in such a case is to combine relationships in a single individual, and the most self-evident person to select for the dual capacity is the husband of the eldest daughter. This is the course pursued. Some worthy young man is secured as spouse for the senior sister; he is at the same time formally taken in as a son by the family whose cognomen he assumes, and eventually becomes the head of the house. Strange to say, this vista of gradually unfolding honors does not seem to prove inviting. Perhaps the new-comer objects to marrying the whole family, a prejudice not without parallel elsewhere. Certainly the opportunity is not appreciated. Indeed, to "go out as a son-in-law," as the Japanese idiom hath it, is considered demeaning to the matrimonial domestic. Like other household help he wears too patently the badge of servitude.

"If you have three koku of rice to your name, don't do it," is the advice of the local proverb--a proverb whose warning against marrying for money is the more suggestive for being launched in a land where marrying for love is beyond the pale of respectability.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 数与恶魔

    数与恶魔

    异能的存在与否和外星文明一直都是国家机密,但是当世界各国开始将异能者视为硬实力并相互竞争时,全力培养异能者的计划相继开始。
  • 破天荒之风

    破天荒之风

    一指定生死,一掌夺造化,一戟化毁灭,一剑破云霄,一戟一剑,破天荒之风!由一个知名的星球穿越来到未知的世界,一代天骄横空出世。家族的陨落,情感的破碎,生死的离别,血色的离迷,使得他留下了宛如恒古般的璀璨。他能否令得他在另一个世界中屹立于大陆之巅?破天荒,何为破天荒?一代天骄,被人歧视。何不愤怒?一切,他将手持一戟一剑,破天荒之风!
  • 莲若初绽之风华绝代

    莲若初绽之风华绝代

    她夺了他的生命,却也了结了自己。他转世,那么她陪!这一生,她不再是人人敬畏的女神,他也不再是人人惧怕的魔。当她无才无貌,他却宠她上天,当她一展绝色容颜,岂料他却将她使劲的抱在怀里,霸道的说:“只能给为夫一个人看!”
  • 鲜血与荣耀

    鲜血与荣耀

    距海加尔山圣战已经过去了七年,部落与联盟之间脆弱的和平协议早已荡然无存。如今,震天的战鼓再次响起!
  • 狼性老公:大人物的小辣妻

    狼性老公:大人物的小辣妻

    小白兔遇上大灰狼后,一般的结果是什么,那当然是吃掉了!美丽的小护士林凡突然走了狗屎运,被自家的院长派到了医院最顶层的VIP病房照顾一位据说很牛逼的病人!“先生,我帮你擦一下身子!保准你舒舒服服。”望着在自己身上上下其手的小手,某人脸色又黑又红。突然有一天。林凡看着压在自己身上的男人,拼命咽口水。“小白兔,你在我身上点了这么多把火,也是该好好的帮我泄泄火了吧。”某人阴森森笑着。
  • 漫漫仙途凡女求仙

    漫漫仙途凡女求仙

    她腾云铁衣在一次打斗中重伤而亡,穿越异世,本是凡女一枚,却无意中落入修真门派,从此,她便踏上了修仙之路,史无前例的劣等资质,在举步维艰的修仙界,一步一坎,一步一阻,一步一泪,面对重重困难,她是否能步步升仙,求得永生,漫漫仙途,红尘缭绕,一步错,步步错,她是否会寻到真爱,仙途受阻,还是斩断红尘,我们一起走进漫漫仙途,凡女求仙。本故事纯属虚构,切勿按照里面的方法修仙。擎雪的QQ群号喜欢这本书的读者可以加下:306012608。
  • 天谕记

    天谕记

    昔日有剑仙,怜世人悲凉,一剑惊天地。西漠有神僧,悯众生疾苦,佛光度世间。普通少年,崛起于市井之中,杀伐于苍穹之巅,一切只因奉天而为。
  • 第二罪恶

    第二罪恶

    叶千寻脱离国际罪犯的生涯,回国当了刑警。本想过回普通人生活的他,查案时却屡遭诡异情况,不得不成为修行界的一名执法者。自此,各种修行界罪犯层出不穷,和尚、道士、巫术、蛊术、出马仙、鬼修。。。。。。而叶千寻自己,也身陷阴谋之中。从科技文明下的罪犯圈,混到了修行界的执法圈,叶千寻带领包括两个美女,一个和尚的行动组,成为最不守规矩的执法者。修行界的执法圈头疼,修行界的罪犯圈也头疼。
  • 诱人王妃

    诱人王妃

    纵有弱水三千,吾独取一瓢饮。也许我曾经爱的不是你,但是从今以后,我只会也只能爱你。风起红尘醉,梦醒锁重门。无奈寒霜里,终留墨香痕。
  • 我所怀念,无话不说

    我所怀念,无话不说

    我希望有这样一段友情,不谈情,不说爱,可以无话不说。