The Portland daily press., 1896-01-16
oATHs IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES,
Modern Tendencies are Toward Abolish
ing Religious Forms.

The7other day at Bow Street Police
Court the prosecutor in an assault case
was Hindoo law student. As he was
not Christian a difficulty arose as to the
form of oath that would be binding on
him. The Magistrate suggested that
saucer broken over his head might prove
a suitable process, but it was shown that
this was Chinese and not Hindoo pro-
cess. The prosecutor finally made SOL
emn affirmation.
1t has been said that no country can
subsist twelvemonth where an oath is
thought not binding; for the want OF it
must necessarily dissolve society. Lycur-
gus said to the Athenians that ian oath
is the bond that keeps the State togeth-
er." In England the old rule was thai
all W illnesses, unless they be in extremis,
must take an oath before giving testi
mony, and this was so even when the
sovereign was called.
In the middle ages naths were multiplied
to An alarming extent, and applied to
every trivial matter in discourse. Any
one examining a formulary, such as the
"Book Of Oaths," published in 1649. will
see that they range from the coronation
oath to those sworn by valuers of cloth
and city scavengers. They are described
as being:
Sworn on every slight pretense,
Till perjurles are common as bad pence,
While thousands, careless of the damning
Kiss the books outside, who meier looked
within.
AFFIRMATION ONLY DEMANDED.
At the present day we seem to be fall.
ing into the other extreme, and the cry
is raised for affirmation, and promise and
declaration in line Of an oath. No doubt
''oathable' to affirm or declare; for, as
Swift says, 'an oath is an appeal to God,
and, therefore, can have no influence ex-
cept upon those who believe that He Is. "
On the one hand, it is admitted that legal
oaths induce witnesses, especially the
ignorant and supersuitious, to give evil
dence moro truthfully than they would do
on even solemn declaration. On the
other hand, all who practice in courts of
Justice declare that a large proportion of
the evidence given under oath is know
ingly false, and that such perjury is per-
ceptibly detrimental to public morals.
There is no prescribed fern of oath laid
down by the legislature. 1t is to be that
which the witness himself states to be
binding upon his conscience; and he is
always allowed to adopt the ceremonies
OF his Gown religion. Some curious In
stances have occurred in eur courts of
justice
A Chinese witness on entering the box
immediately knelt down, and china
saucer having been handed to him, be-
still in the same posture, smashed it
against the rail- The usher then, through
an interpreter, addressed him thus You
shall tell the truth, and the whole truth;
the saucer is cracked. and if you will not
tell the truth your soul will be cracked
like the saucer.' A Jew is sworn upon
the Pentateuch with his head covered
A witness was permitted to kiss the Ola
Testament alone, because it countenanced
swearing, and the new prohibited it. And
when on trial for high treason one of the
witnesses refused to take the oath as
usually administered. but put his hand
to his buttons, and. in reply to the ques-
ton whether he was sworn, stated that
he was under an oath, it was held suffi-
cient. Lord George Gordon, before he
embraced the Jewish religion, was sworn
in the Scotch manner, by holding up his
hand without touching the book or kiss
ing it, and the form of oath administered
was: "You swear according to the GUS
tom of your country, and of the religi on
you profess that the evidence" &c. A
Mohammedan witness first placed his
right hand to his fore head, then brought
the top OF his forehead down until it
touched the book. He then looked for
some time upon it, and, being asked what
effect the ceremony was to produce, he
answered that he was bound by it to
speak the truth. The deposition of "a
Hindoo has been received who touched
with his hand the hand and foot of
Brahmin.
A WARNING TO PERJURERS.
A curious kind of curse oath is found
among the Nagas of Assam. Two men
will lay hold of dog by the head and
feet, third will then, with single blow
of the das, chop it in two, this being en-
blematio of the fate expected to befall the
perjurer. In lawsuits between Russians
and the wild Ostiaks of Siberia it Is GUS
tomary to bring into Court the head of
bear. the Onstiak making the gesture of
eating and calling on the bear to devour
him in like manner if he does not tell the
truth.
In earlier ages men swore invariably
by StyX ana IiDef. ana TO this day an
oath on water of the Ganges is to the
Hindoo the most binding of pledges, for
the goddess will take awful vengeance on
the perjurer's children. The heaven god,
able to smlte the liar with his lightning,
was. invoked by the Romans. A hos was
then slain with the sacred flint (repre-
senting the thunderbolt), with the invo-
cation to Jove to smiUe the Roman people
if they broke the oath.
But as nations became more observant,
experience must have shown that bears
and tigers were as apt to kill truth tellers
as perjurers, and that the lightning
flash falls without moral Discrimination,
alike on the just and on the unjust. In
1.-THE Clouds of Aristophanes, indeed,
men have come openly to ridioule such
beliefs, the Socrates of the play pointing
out that notorious perjurers 20 un-
harmed, while Zeus hurls his bolts at bis
own temple and at the tall oaks, as if an
oak tree could perjure itself The doc
Urine of miraculous earthly retribution on
the false witness existed only in legend,
but as rule, it has heen,tranaferred from
the present world to the regions beyond
the grave. A single instance will show at
once the combiL alton of retributiop in