Page:The kingdom and people of Siam - with a narrative of the mission to that country in 1855 (IA b29352447 0001).pdf/212

 sins (i. e., idiots), persons who cannot distinguish right from wrong, persons excluded by mental incapacity from the priesthood, lunatics. LEGISLATION. In contrast to these exclusions, the code directs that special weight shall be given to the evidence of priests and religious persons, to those learned in the law, to individuals of rank and good character, to laymen who have been in the priesthood, &c. The following is a copy of the Siamese oath, or Sapath, which is administered to witnesses in the Siamese courts :- "I, who have been brought here as an evi- dence in this matter, do now, in the presence of the divine Phra P'hoott hee rop (meaning Buddha), declare that I am wholly unprejudiced against either party, and uninfluenced in any way by the opinions or advice of others; and that no prospects of pecu- niary advantage or of advancement to office have been held out to me: I also declare that I have not received any bribe on this occasion. If what I have now spoken be false, or if in my further averments I should colour or pervert the truth so as to lead the judgment of others astray, may the three holy existences, viz., Buddha, the Bali [personified], and the Hierarchy before whom I now stand, together with the glorious Devattas of the twenty-two firma- ments, punish me. "If I have not seen, yet shall say that I have seen— if I shall say that I know that which I do not know, then may I be thus punished:-Should innumerable descents of the Deity happen for the regeneration and salvation of mankind, may my erring and migrating