Semi=weekly graphic., 1899-05-17
TAKING THE OATH.
VARIOUS METHODS THAT PREVAIL IN
 CERTAIN COUNTRIES

Tn Some Instances Solemn and in Others Laughable-substitutes for the Bible
 Used in India-Tbo Terrible Norwegian
 oath-Reverence sG the Nohammedans.
 There is more than a touch of the grotesque, as we'll as of the solemn, Ill the modes of administering oaths ID certain countries. When a Chlnaman swears to tell the truth he kneels down and a china saucer is given to him. This he proceeds to break in pieces, and the following oath is then admin. istered: 'Yau shall tell the truth and the whole trdth. The saucer IS cracked and if you do not tell the truth your soul will be cracked like the saucer.
 Other symbolic variations of the Chinese oath are the extinguishing of candle, or cutting off of a cocks head, the light of the candle repre- senting the Witness's soul and the fate of the cock symboliZing the fate ot perjurer.
 In certain parts of India tigers and lizards skins take the place of the Bible of Christian countries, and the penalty of breaking the oath is that in one case the witness will become the prey of tiger, and in the other that his body will be covered with scales like a lizards.
 One of the most terrible of European oaths is that administered in NOrweg- ian courts of law. The prelude to the oath proper is q long homilg on the sanctity of the oath and the terrible consequences of not keeping il. Part of this lengthy sermon takes this form: tSTf a fa IGA oath fEn uAO6. ness and mercy of God will not avail you, but you will be punished etern- ally in hell as a perYerse and hardened sinner. If you swear falsely all your possessions will be cursed; your land and meadows, so that they will yield you no fruit; your cattle and sheep will be barren, and all that you enjoy in this world will become 0 curse to you"
 When the witness is duly crushed by the sense of his fearful responsibility, the oath is administered, while he holds aloft his thumb and fore and middle fingers, as an emblem of the Trinity.
 It is a little curious that the expres- sion, "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in very slightly varied forms, runs through almost all the paths administered in European courts.
 In an Italian court the witness, with his right hand resting on an open Bible, declares, tsI will swear to tell the truth, the whole truth an& nothing but the truth"
 The Mohammedan takes the oath with his forehead reverentIY resting on the open Koran. He takes his 'bible" in his hands, and. stopping low, as if in the presence of a higher power, slowly bows his head until it touches the book, which to him is in- spired. In the reverence of his acts and the answering loyalty to an oath many Europeans have much to learn from follower of Mohammed.
 In certain parts of Spain the witness when taking an oath crosses the thumb of one hand over the forefinger of the other, and kissing this symbolic, If primitive, cross, says, By this cross l swear to tell the truth"
 In the more usual form of admins tering the oath in Spain, the witness kneels sOlemnly before the Bible and places his right hand revenently upon it. The Judge then asks hlm, twill you swear, in the name of God and His holy Book, to speak the truth in answer to all questions that may be asked you?" The witness answers, q swear" The Judge then concludes. If you do this God will reward you.'
 An Austrian takes his oath in front of crueifix, fanked by lighted can dies. With upraised right hand he says, 'I swear by the all powerful and all wise God that I will speak the whole and clean truth, and nothing but the truth, in answer to any ques- tions that may be asked in this court"
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