Absences of Parents
In the event of the father’s death the mother assumes responsibility for the fosterage of the son and pronounces judgment on him. So also, in the event of the father’s death, {he son, if head of the sept, takes the father’s responsibility for the fosterage of his (the son’s) sister and her relief in old ,vrCy if necessary.1 He receives proportion of the marriage ”ifts, too, but to a lesser degree than the father ; and he maintains the widowed mother in her old age. In the same way. the foster-son has the responsibility of assisting his foster-mother in her need and maintaining her in her old a<’0 : she may bear witness against him, but he may oppose it.- Foster-children generally, in the absence of legitimate children, were expected to contribute to the maintenance of their foster-parents when overtaken by old age as, in the like circumstances, students were expected to contribute to the maintenance of foster-teachers.
There were two kinds of fosterage, or daltachas—for affection and for payment. Fosterage ended at three periods : death, crime, and selection—at the age of seventeen for boys, fourteen for girls.Abduction and the penalties and obligations thereto attaching are exhaustively dealt with, and divorce is referred to.’ " Separation of husband and wife," if decided by those learned in the law, was recognised under the Brehon code,5 and was accompanied by equal division of property. In at least seven eventualities could a wife legally separate from her husband, retain the whole or part of her marriage portion, and obtain restitution : if falsely charged or grievously misrepresented by him ; if rendered a subject of ridicule by him ; if so beaten or maltreated that a blemish was inflicted on her; if openly abandoned or publicly charged with infidelity ; if neglected in favour of other women, or if the husband committed adultery ; if she received a love potion before marriage ; if her full rights were not given her in domestic and social concerns. If a first wife were put away unlawfully, her son was not bound to maintain her until the time of her decrepitude.
