Page:An analysis of religious belief (1877).djvu/123

 *cations from God to man which are made by ordeals. Ordeals were of various kinds, according to the nature of the issue to be tried. Did one man charge another with some kind of disgraceful conduct, the accuser was summoned to put his words to the test of a single combat, in which truth was held to lie on the side of the victor; was an old woman suspected of witchcraft, she was thrown into the nearest pond, with thumbs and toes tied together, where her floating was regarded as certain evidence of her guilt, Innocence of legal crime, or in the case of women, of adultery, has very frequently been established by the method of ordeals. Several authors have noticed the ordeals in use among the natives on the west coast of Africa. One of them, writing of Sierra Leone, informs us that if an accused person can find a chief to patronize him, he is permitted to clear himself by submitting either to have a hot iron applied to his skin, or to dip his hand in boiling oil to pull out some object put into it, or to have his tongue stroked with a red-hot copper ring. Since his being burnt is considered as a proof of guilt, it would not appear that the chances of escape were great. "Upon the Gold Coast, the ordeal consists in chewing the bark of a tree, with a prayer that it may cause his death if he be not innocent. In the neighborhood of Sierra Leone," a very peculiar ordeal is practiced, that, namely, of drinking water prepared from the bark of a certain tree, and termed "red water." Before taking it, the drinker repeats a prayer containing an imprecation on himself if guilty. Should this decoction cause purging or pains in the bowels, it is a proof of guilt; should it, on the contrary, excite vomiting, and produce no effect on the bowels for twenty-four hours, an acquittal ensues, and the person who has thus successfully undergone the trial is held in higher esteem than he enjoyed before (N. A., vol. i. p. 129-133). Sometimes this singular mode of trial is employed in cases where a corpse is supposed to have accused some person of causing the death of its former owner (S. L., p. 124-127). On the Gold Coast, "every person entering into any obligation is obliged to drink the swearing liquor." Thus, should one nation intend to assist another, "all the chief ones are obliged to drink this liquor, with an imprecation that their fetiche may punish them with death if they do not assist them