OATHS AMONG SAVAGES.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 53, 5 October 1878, Page 3

OATHS AMONG SAVAGES.

Among the Nomad race of the north three kinds of oaths aie said to be usual-, the first ami least solemn one being for tho accused to face tbo sun with a knife, protending to fight against it, and to cry aloud; "If I am guilty, may the sun cause sickness to rage in my body like this knife!” The second form of oath is to cry aloud from the tops of certain mountains, invoking death, loss of children and cattle, of bad luck in hunting, in Jcaso of guilt being real. Hut tho most solemn oath of all is to exclaim, in drinking some of tho blood of a dog, killed expressly by (be elders and burnt or thrown away: "If I die, may 1 perish decay, or burn away like this dog.” Very similar is the oath in Snmtra, where a beast having been slain, the swearer says: “If I break my oath may 1 be slaughtered as this boast, and swallowed as this heart 1 now consume.” The most solemn oath of tho Bedouins, that of tho cross-lines, is also characterised by the same belief yhich appeal's in the case of tin; slain boast affecting with sympathetic decay tho man guilty of perjury. If a Bedouin cannot convict a man ho suspects of theft, it is usual for him to take the suspected before a sheikh or lady, and to call on him to swear any oath that may bo demanded of him. If the do- 1 femlant agrees, ho is led to a certain distance from tho camp, 11 because the ' magical nature of (he oath might prove pernicious to tho : general body of Arabs 1

wore it to take place iu their vicinity.” Then the plaintiff draws with hissckin, or crooked knife, u largo circle iu the sand with many cross-lines inside it, then places his right foot inside it, causes the defendant to do the same, and makes him say after himself: “By (Jod, and in God. and through (rod I swear 1 did not lake the thing, nor is it iu my possession.” To make the oath still more solemn, the accused often puts also in the circle an ant and a hit of camel’s string, the one expressive of a hope that he may never lack the winter provisions of an ant. Firm, however, as is the savage belief that the consequences of perjury are death or disease, a belief which shows itself not {infrequently in inferring the fact of perjury from the fact of death, escape from the obligation of an oath is net unknown among savages. On the Guinea Coast recourse was had to the common expedient of priestly absolution so that when a man lakes a draught oath, imprecating death on himself if he failed in his promise, the priests weresometimes compelled to take an oath too, to the effect that they would not employ their absolving powers to release him. In Abyssinia a similar process seems to he in vogue ; for the king,-on one occasion having sworn by a cross, thus addressed his servants: “ Vou see the oath 1 have taken : I scrape it clean away from my longue that made it.” Thereupon ho scraped his tongue and spat away his oath, thus validly releasing himself from it.—Gentleman’s Magazine.