The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1876-12-08
nov S4VAGES SHEAR.
CURIOUS FORMS OF oATH-TAKING.

Macmillian's Magazine gives an ac--
cunt of some curious forms Ofjudlclal
oaths:
When a Galla or Abvssinian sits
down over pit covered with hide,
ilnnrecating that lie may fall into
Dit if he breaks his word, OIL when in
our police courts we make a Chinaman
swear by taking an eartheD saucer and
breaking it on rail in front of the
witness box, signifving as the inter
prefer then puts it in words, 'lf you
co not tell the truth, your soul will be
cracied like the saucer" we have two
full oaths, of which the penalty, mag
ical or religious, is shown Ill panto-
mime before us,
The rude natives of New Guinea
swear by the sun, or 10y n certain
mountain. or hv weapon, that the
sun might burn them il they lie. The
savages Of the Brazilian forest raises
the hand over the head or thrust 1T
into theii hair, or they will touch the
points of their weapons.
As to swearing by weapons. another
graphic instance of its original mean
iug comes from Aracan, where the
witness. swearing 20 speak the truth,
takes in his hand ! musket, a sword,
spear. tigers tusk, q crOcodile's
tooth, and thunderbolt (that is, of
course a stone celt) The oath by the
weapon not ouly lasted on through
classic ages, but remained so common
in Christcndom that it was expressly
forbidden by synod. Even in the
seventeenth century to swear on
sword Qike IIamlct's friend i'll the
ghost srcne) was still legal oath ut
IIolstein. As for holding up the
land to invoke the personal divine
sky the success of this primitive gcs-
ture remains to this day among the
chief acts in the solemn oaths of Eu-
ropean nations.
One of the accounts from New
Guinea is that the swea: :cr, holding
up an arrow. calls on Heaven to pun
ish him if he lies but, by turning the
arrow the other way the oath can be
neutralizcd.
An Abyssinian chief, who had
sworn an oath he disliked, has been
seen to scrape it off his tongue ana
spit it out There are still places in
Germany where the false witness
reckOns to escape the spiritual conSe-
ouences of perjury by erooking one
finger, to make it, | suppose, rot a
straight but crooked oath or he
puts his left hand on his side to neu-
tralize what the right hand is doing.
Here is an idea Of our over the LETT
but rs lar as know this has come
down with us to mere schoolboy's
shuffling
Probably to this day there may be
seen in Russian Law Courts i'll Seberia
the oath on the bears head. When
an Ostavake is 20 be sworn q lear's
head is brought into court and the
man makes believe to bite ut it, falling
on the bear to deyOur him in like
manner if he does not tell the truth
Among the hill tribe of India a
tigers skin is sworn on III the same
sense us the bears head among ii e
Ostayaks Rivers again, which to the
savage and barl arian are intelligent
and personal divinities. ale sworn hv,
in strong belief that their waters will
puAsh him who takes their name in
vain.
How THEY MAKE PINs.-A snap
pish, voraciOus little dwarf of ma
chine pulls in the wile, bites it off by
in ches necessarily, 40 bites Il minute
and just rs it scizcs each bite saucv
little hammer with Il concave face hits
the end of the wire three taps and
"upsets" it to head while he grips
il i'm q cOuntersunl hole letween his
teeth and lays it sideways in Il groove
where levers and springs, playing like
lightning, points the pins, and whence
they are dropped into box. The
PINS gre then polished. and two very
Intelligent machines reject every
crooked pin. Another automaton as.
sorts half II dozen lengths, and per
feet genius of machine hangs the pins
by the heads and transfers them tl
slips of paper, and bv one movement
sticks them all through two corrugated
ridges in the paper, when the work i;
finished. The D.n machine is one o
the nearest approaches to the dextcrity
of the human hand that has been in
vented. 1t is about the size of a sew
inc machine, which it closely resem
blcs.
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