re those which a person enjoys by the gift or concession of another, and to which he was not otherwise entitled.—They stand contradistinguished from arms of alliance. We sometimes meet with adoptive heir by way of opposition to natural heir, and adoptive gods by way of contradiction to domestic ones. The Romans, notwithstanding the number of their domestic, had their adoptive gods, taken chiefly from the Egyptians: such were Isis, Osiris, Amhis, Apis, Harpocrates, and Canopus.