The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-12-23
KISSING THE BOOK.

What Originated the Custom Of Kissing
the Bible In T,king an Oath.
The idea on VIII ch oaths, or adjura-
tons, was founded was that the unseen
powers or deities would always punish
falsehoOd if their attention were called
to It. That is, the person might be as
untruthiul as he would be on ordinary
occas Ons, but whenever he called on!
one of the gods To witness the truth of
his assertion, he was bound to keep his
word, lest the de ty, outraged ut bong
made a party to falsehOod, would
wreak SPEC al vengeance upon him.,
From this idea, which has survived from
the earl est times to the present, came
the belief that the prOx'm ty of OBJ
ject regarded q, sacred made the oath
more b nding; j. e., made men more
afraid to vioalate it. The ancient Jews
touched their phylacterie' in tax ng an
oath. Later, their pract re was to lay
their hand upon the book of the law,
whence came our custom of swearing
on the Bible. The various customs
of taking oaths in dile ent couu-
tries have a | sim lar orig n. The
early Anglo-Saxons laid the hands
on q p lar OF st, ne, because stones
were regarded as sacred to their gods,
In MEDIEVAL mes it was customary to
touch relic, and this was regarded as
giving the oath more sacredness even,
than when taken upon the Mssal, or
prayer-book. When Harold swore all
leg ance to King William of Normandy,
the Mssal was placed upon a chest
which. when aferward opened, was
seen to be filled with bones of the
saints. 1t is a curious proof of the su-
persttion OF the times. this idea that am
adjuration to the Aim ghty was made
more solemn by the presence of a
knu,kle-Done, a jaw or a doub e-toothi
of dead man. Another custom Of
med aval times was swearing bN
churches. A c rita n nu nb,r were men,
toned, and the attestor was obi ged to
60 to each one, take the ring of
the church door n his hani an repeat
his oaih. From very early times the
Russian custom has heen to K ss the
cross to attest an oath. and the practices
has extended into other countries. This
and other similar bod es, and the laws
Of the order of the CARER IN Henry
VIII s. time, requ red the kn ghts to-
Outu tuc OoOh anu MISS tuC CtoSS. N
common attestat on of the oath in Ger
many in the middle ages and later, was
by the bosom. placing the hand thereon,
This came from the pracl CO of wearing
a crucitix or amulets suspended from
the neck. Kiss ng the book. which is
still the common pract CO throughout
the Br tish Emp re. rs well as in this
country, has not been perm tied in
Scotland since the refornation.-Chi-
cdgo Inter- Ocean.
The small Cambridge boy dis
courses on the c dish: "A goldfish is
the only Annymal that amt got no
neck; there ain't but one kind of u fish
in the World that yes on the land flies
round il the r, and is a tish-hawk. A
! goldfish has a large mouth and my
SCHOOL TeecherS got large mouth, too.
Two kids got tite,n in the ,estry one
day and one of elm pulled out, a lot
Of Hare out OF the OF or kids He'd and
the Super ngtend no pounded one of his
Eers with book and SD they quit. A
fish would lopk ,unny il they b ID legs
and could run. ."-Boston Herald.
-X--meets one of his friends, q
Bohem an. for whom he had procured q
lucrative pos ton. Learning that he
had just out his employment voluntari-
| ly, he asked the reason. Il was just
60 ng to tell you." responded the other,
"As soon as my creditors fuand that +
was making some money they all
pounced down upon me. would pre-,
fer to make moth ng at all than to have
8. much trouble. FROM the French.
A New York doctor says that men
who have the headache are the most
sympathetic. We had supposed that
these men are usually arout as agree
le as a bear with sore head; but,
when New York doctor makes aver,
ment to the contrary. We must admit
that we were wrong. and infer that q
man with q headsche has . faculty e
| a svuiainU hia foal nUa vhich ano,,nsn