Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/340

 318 made, "So help me God!" or "So help you God!" Many a modern Englishman puzzles over this obscure form of words. "When the question is asked what the meaning of the oath is, the official interpretation practically comes to saying that it means the same as the Scotch oath. But neither by act nor word does it convey this meaning. So obvious is the discrepancy between what is considered to be meant and what is actually done and said, that Paley, remarking on the different forms of swearing in different countries, does not scruple to say that they are "in no country in the world, I believe, worse contrived either to convey the meaning, or impress the obligation of an oath, than in our own."

This remark of Paley's aptly illustrates a principle of the science of culture which cannot be too strongly impressed on the minds of all who study the institutions of their own or any other age. People often talk of mystic formulas and mystic ceremonies. But, the more we study civilization in its earlier stages, the more we shall find that formulas and ceremonies, both in law and in religion, are as purposeful and business-like as can be, if only we get at them anywhere near their origin. What happens afterward is this, that, while men's thoughts and wants gradually change, the old phrases and ceremonies are kept up by natural conservatism, so that they become less and less appropriate, and then, as their meaning falls away, its place is apt to be filled up with mystery. Applying this principle to the English oath formula, we ask what and where it originally was. It was Teutonic-Scandinavian, for, though corresponding formulas are known in Latin (Ita me adjuvet Deus) and in Old French (Ce m'ait Diex, etc.), these are shown by their comparatively recent dates to be mere translations of the Germanic originals. Now, although ancient English and German records fail to give the early history of the phrase, this want is fortunately supplied by a document preserved in Iceland. Some while after the settlement of the island by the Northmen, but long before their conversion to Christianity, the settlers felt the urgent need of a code of laws, and accordingly Ulfliot went to Norway for three years to Thorleif the Wise, who imparted to him his legal lore. Ulfliot went to Norway 925, so that the form of judicial oath he authorized, and which was at a later time put on record in the Icelandic Landnâmabôk, may be taken as good and old in Norse law. Its pre-Christian character is, indeed, obvious from its tenor. The halidome on which it was sworn was a metal arm-ring, which was kept by the godhi or priest, who reddened it with the blood of the ox sacrificed, and the swearer touching it said, in words that are still half English: "Name I to witness that I take oath by the ring, lawoath, so help me Frey, and Niördh, and almighty Thor (hialpi mer svâ Freyr, ok Niördhr, ok hinn almâttki Âss) as I shall this suit follow or defend, or witness bear or verdict or doom, as I wit rightest and soothest and most lawfully," etc. Here, then, we have the full