Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/84

 Oaths. . sacredncss of the oath, reminding him of the punishment of false witnesses, then he and the clerk, rising, and bareheaded, the the judge administered the oath. In Norway every one who takes an oath lifts up three fingers, i. e., the thumb, the forefinger and the middle finger; these sig nify respectively God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. The other fingers are bent down in the hand, the larger signifying the soul which lies hidden in man, and the smaller the body of man, because it is little — just as the body is of small account as compared with the soul. An exhortation, or address, is delivered when the oath is administered. It begins: "Whatever person is so ungodly, corrupt and hostile to himself as to swear a false oath or not to keep the oath sworn, sins in such a manner as if he were to say, ' If I swear falsely then may God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost punish me, so that God the Father, who created me and all mankind in His image and His fatherly goodness, grace and mercy, may not profit me; but that I, as a perverse and obstinate transgressor and sinner, may be punished eternally in hell.' . . . ' If I swear falsely, then may all I have and own in this world be cursed, cursed be my land, field and meadow, so that I may never enjoy any fruit or yield from them, cursed be my cattle, my beasts, my sheep, so that after this day they may never thrive or benefit me, yea, cursed may I be and everything I possess.' " And the exhorter goes on a great deal longer in the same strain. (The Land of the Midnight Sun, Du Chaillu, vol. v I, page 413.) The old Aztec, when called upon to take his fingers, and then touched his tongue with the same. This reminds us of the Abyssinian chief who, having been obliged to take an oath he disliked, was seen to try and scrape it off his tongue and spit it out. People generally are required to remove
 * an oath, touched the ground with one of

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their glove before taking the Gospels into the hand, but such uncovering does not appear to be necessary. Mr. Justice Haw kins on one occasion said he would be very sorry to find himself in the dock on a charge of perjury, and as his only defense the fact that he had taken the oath with his gloves on. In olden days persons who deemed them selves of considerable importance in the world used special and particular oaths, which they copyrighted or patented, as it were. The pilot Palinurus swore by the rough seas he was wont to navigate. Pythagoras, by the air he breathed, or by the water he drank; Socrates, when he did not swear by a dog, did, as we have seen, by a plane tree. William the Con queror swore " By God's resurrection," or by " His splendor." Rufus, his son, swore " By this and by that," or " By St. Luke's face"; John, "By God's teeth"; Richard II " By St. John the Baptist," and the third Richard, "By St. Paul"; Henry, of many wives, " By the Mother of God "; and James I "By his own soul." The French kings, also, had special oaths : Louis XI only considered himself bound when he swore by the golden image on the hilt of his sword; the Twelfth Louis' favorite oath was, " Le diable m'emporte." Charles VIII swore " Par le jour Dieu," while Francis I used the dignified oath of "La foi de gentilhomme." Pretty Rosalind swore " By my troth and in good earnest, and so God mend me." The astronomer Vettius Valens, in binding his disciples to secrecy, administered to them an oath " By the starry vault of heaven, by the circle of the zodiac, by the sun, the moon, by the five wandering stars, by Providence itself, and by Holy Necessity." Nowadays legislators in Bavaria com plete their oath of office by saying, " So help me God and His Holy Gospel"; in Denmark, " So help me God and His Holy Word "; the Greek says, " I swear in the