The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-07-13
Oaths in Different Countries.

Oaths in Different Countries.
But when a Gala of Abyssinia sits
down over a pit covered with a hide, i'm
precating that he may fall into pit if he
breaks his word, or when in our police
courts we make a Chinaman swear by
taking an cartllcrn saucer and breaking it
on the rail in front of the witness-box,
signifying, as the Interpreter then puts it
in words, /" if you do not tell the truth,
your soul will be cracked like this
saucer" VIC have here two full oaths, of
which the penalty, magical or religious,
is shown in pantominc before us. BY the
way, the English judges who authorized
this last sensational ceremony must have
believed that they were calling on China
man to take a judicial oath after the man.
ner of his own country; but they acted
under mistake, for in fact the Chinese
use no Oaths at all in their law courts.
Now we have to distinguish these real
Oaths from mere asseverations, in which
emphatic terms or descriptive gestures are
introduced merely for the purpose of
showing the strength of resolve in the de-
clarer's mind. Where, then, does the diff
ference lie between the two? 1t is to be
found in the mourning of supernatural
penalty. There would be no difficulty at
all in clearing up the question, were it
not that theologians have set up distinc-
ton between oaths of imprecations and
oaths of witness. Such subtletics, how
ever, looked at from practical point of
view, are seen to he casuistic cobwebs
which touch of the rough broom of COM
mon sense will sweep away. The practi
Cal question is this: Does the swcarcr
mean that by going through the ceremony
he brings on himself, if he breaks faith,
some special magic harm, or divine dis
pleasure and punishment? If so, the
oath is practically imprecatory; if not, it
is futile, wanting the very sanction which
gives it legal value. 1t does not matter
whether the imprecation is stated, or only
implied. When a Bedouin picks up a
straw, and swears by him who made it
grow and wither, there is no need to &C
company this with homily on the fate of
the perjured. This reticence is so usual
in the world that as often as not we have
to 60 outside the actual formula and cere
mony to learn what their full intention is.
Let us now examine some typical forms
of oath. The rude natives of New Guinea
swear by the sun, or by certain noun
tain, or by weapon, that the sun may
burn them, or the mountain crush them,
or the weapon wound them, if they lie.
The even ruder savages Of the Brazilian
forests, to confirm their words, raise the
hand over the head or thrust it into their
hair, or they will touch the points of their
weapons. These two accounts of savage
ceremony Introduce us to customs we'll
known to nations of higher culture. The
roicinr IF fho harH ri tho CIV
to mean here what it does elsewhere. 1t
is in gesture calling on the heaven God to
smite the perjurer with His thunderbolt.
The touching of the head again carries its
meaning among these Brazilians. Almost
as plainly as in Africa, where we find men
swearing by their heads or limbs, in the
belief that they would wither if forsworn
or as when among the Old Prussians a
man would lay his right hand'on his own
neck, and his left on the holy oak, saying,
May Perkun (the thunder-god) destroy
me" AS to swearing by weapons, an
other graphic instance of its original
meaning comes from Aracan, where the
witness, swearing to speak the truth, takes
in his hand musket, sword, spear, a
tigers tusk, crocodile's tooth and
thunderbolt (hat is, of course stone
celD. The oath by the weapon not only
lasted on through classic ages, but re-
manned so common in Christendom that it
was expressly forbidden by synod Even
in the seventeenth century to swear on the
sword like Hamlet's friend in the ghost
scene) was still legal oath in Holstein.
AS for the holding up the hand to invoke
the personal divine sky, the successor of
this primitive gesture remains to this day
among the chief acts in the solemn oaths
of European nations.
1t could scarcely be shown more clearly
with what childlike imagination the saw
age conceives that symbolic action, such
as touching his head or his spear, will
somehow pass into reality. In connection
with this group Of Oaths, we can carry yet
a step further theillustration of the way
mems minds work in this primitive stage
of association of ideas. One of the &C
counts from New Guinea is that the
swearer, holding up an arrow, call on
Heaven to punish him if he lies; but by
turning the arrow the other way, the oath
can be neutralized. This is magic all
over. What one symbol can do, the re-
verse symbol can undo. True to the laws
of primitive magical reasoning, uncul-
tured men elsewhere still carry on the
symbolic reversal of their oaths. An
Abyssinian chief, who had sworn an oath
he disliked, has been seen to scrape off his
tongue and spit it out. There are still
places in Germany where the false witness
reckons to escape the spiritual conse-
quences of perjury by crooking one finger,
to make it, l suppose, not straight but
crooked oath, or he puts his left hand to
his side to neutralize what the right hand
is doing. Here is the idea of our cover
the Left" but so far as l know this has
come down with us to mere schoolboy's
shutting.
A group of instructives rites belongs to
Central and North Asia. Probably to this
day there may be seen in Russia law
courts in Siberia the oath on the bears
head. When an Ostyak is to be sworn a
bears head is brought into court and the
man makes believe to bite at it, calling
on the bear to devour him in like manner
if he does not tell the truth. Now the
meaning of this act goes beyond magic
and into religion, for we are here in the
religion Of bear worship, among people
who believe that this wise and divine
beast knows what goes on and will come
and punish them. Nor need one wonder
at this, for the idea that the bear will hear
and come if called on is familiar to Ger
man mythology. was interested to find
it still in survival in Switzerland a few
years ago, when q peasant woman, whom
mischievous little English boy had irri-
tated beyond endurance, pronounced the
ancient, awful imprecation on him, The
bear take thee!'' (der Bar nimm dichD
Among the hill tribes Of India tigers
skin is sworn on in the same sense rs the
bears head among the Ostyaks. Rivers,
again, which to the savage and barbarian
are intelligent and personal divinities, are
sworn by in strong belief that their waters
will punish him who takes their name in
vain. We can understand why Homeric
heroes swore by the rivers, when we hear
still among Hindus how the sacred Ganges
will take vengeance sure ;s.ld terrible on
the children Of the perjurer. 1t is with
the same personification, the same fear of
impending chastisement from the outraged
Deity that savage and barbaric men have
sworn by sky or sun. Thus the Huron
Indian would say in making solemn
promise: Heaven hears what we do this
day!" and the Tunguz, brandishing a
lyns 81 hnfr f1,n r.