Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/30

 The Ordeal in Africa. in the method of making a levy. Benjamin F. Butler, when he was a young lawyer, got a wide reputation for sagacity by attaching the water-wheel of a mill in an action for

15

debt. It used to be a common thing for lawyers obtaining judgments against the city to attach the pictures in the governor's room of the city hall. — Ex.

THE ORDEAL IN AFRICA. TN Africa, where humanity is at its worst, and godless races of men are the rule, the ordeal in its most cruel shape is universally practised. When Father Dos Santos tried his skill christianizing the Kaffirs, he found them full of faith in their three ordeals, — the xoqua, lucasse, and calang. The firstnamed consisted in licking a bar of red-hot iron; the second, in drinking a bowl of poison, bringing instant death to the guilty; and in the third, the accused drank a bitter beverage, the smallest quantity of which sufficed to choke him, if he deserved it. Merolla mentions several ordeals in vogue among the natives of Congo, such as pass ing a red-hot iron over the naked leg; drinking water in which hot iron had been quenched; putting a soft banana root into the delinquent's mouth, that would infallibly stick to his teeth if he were guilty; and ad ministering a composition of serpent's flesh and the juice of herbs, called bolungo, that caused the guilty one to swoon away. In another a wizard took a long woollen or linen thread, and holding one end himself, gave the other to the supposed thief; he then applied a red-hot iron to the middle of the thread, and if it burned, which was not very unlikely, the accused had to make good the article stolen. Equally simple was the man ner of settling disputes as to the ownership of property. Two obstinate fellows being at law together, and the truth being hard to be got out of them, the judge summons them both to appear before him, where being come, he fixes to each of their foreheads a sea-shell, and at the same time commands

them to bow down their heads; and he from whom the shell first drops is taken for the liar. The natives of death-dealing Sierra Leone have boundless faith in the judicial pow ers of an infusion called red-water, pos sessing violent emetic and purgative proper ties. Supposing Quashee is suspected of bewitching a neighbor, or accused of mis taking somebody else's belongings for his own, he betakes himself to the nearest town, and informs the head-man that he wishes to drink the red-water there. If the head-man is agreeable, Quashee takes up his quarters in the town, keeping himself as private as possible for two or three months, until he receives the regular three days' notice of the day of trial. The trial takes place in the open air, in the most public manner. The accused, having fasted for twelve hours, takes his place on a stool some three feet high (standing on a number of fresh plantain leaves), with one hand resting on his thigh, and the other held up in the air. A circle, eight feet in diameter, is then drawn round the stool, into which the public are forbid den to intrude. The ceremony begins by the ring being entered by the concocter of the red-water, carrying the necessary ingredients, — a brass pan, a pestle and mortar, and a large calabash. After ex hibiting the bark, and ostentatiously work ing his hands and his tools, the operator sets to work at grinding the bark into powder, mixing it with water in the pan, and stirring it until it froths, when it is pronounced fit for use. Certain prayers are pronounced, and