Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1876 — Oaths Different Countries. [ARTICLE]

Oaths Different Countries.

Bft when a Gall* of Abyssinia sits down over a pit covered with a hide, imprecating that he may fall into a pH If he break* nu word, or* when in our police «xwrt* we make a Chinaman swear by toki«g an earthern saucer and I leaking 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, yoar aoul will be csacked like this -sauQcr,” we baveltfu* ti#» full okths, erf which the penalty* luagiui or religious, : is shown in pantomine before us. JBy the way, tire English lodges who authorised this last sensational ceremony must have -believed that they were calling on a China--man to take a judicial oath after the manner of his own country'; but they acted * under a mistake, for In fact fire Chinese •-use no oaths at all in their law Courts. Row 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 declarer's mind. Where, then, does the difference lie between the twot ft Is to be found in the incurring of supernatural .penalty. There would tic no difficulty at «11 in clearing up the question, were it not that theologians have set up a distinction between oaths of imprecations and -oaths of witness. Such subtleties, however, looked at from a practical point of view, are seen to be casuistic cobwebs which a touch of the rough broom of common sense will sweep away. The practical question is this: Does the swearer mean that by going through the ceremony Me brings on himself, if he breaks faith, aotne special magic ham, or divine displeasure and punishment? If so, the -oath is practically imprecatory; if not, it ia futile, wanting the very sanction which . gives it legal value. It d6es 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 accompany this with a homily on the fateof the perjured. This reticence is so usual ia the world that as often as not we have to go outside the actual formula and ceremony to learn what their full intention is. Let us now examine some typical forms -of oath. The rude natives ofNew Guinea . swear by the sun, or by a certain mountain, or by a 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 w’ords, raise the hand over the head or thrust it into their hair, or they will touch the points of their weapons. These two acodunts of savage • ceremony introduce us to customs well known to nations of higher culture. The raising of the hand toward the sky seems to mean here what it does elsewhere. It • is in gesture calling on the heaven-God to . suite the perjurer with His thunderbolt. • Hie 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 Jay his right hand on his own neck, and liis left on the holy oak, saying, “ May Berkun (the thunder-god) destroy me!” As to swearing by weapons, another graphic instance of its original meaning comes from Aracan, where the witness, swearing to speak the truth, takes in his hand a musket, a sword, a spear, a tiger’s tusk, a crocodile's tooth and a thunderbolt (that is, of course a stone celt). The until by the weapon not only lasted on through classic ages, but remained so common in Christendom that it was expressly forbidden by a synod. Even in the seventeenth century to swear on the sword (like Hamlet’s friend in the ghost scene) was still a 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.

It could scarcely be shown more clearly <with what childlike imagination the savage conceives that a symbolic action, such ■ as touching his head ’or his spear, will somehow pass into reality. In connection with this group of oaths, we can cany yet a step further the illustration of the way men’s minds work fn this primitive stage • of association of ideas. One of the aC- ■ (mints from New Guinea is that the : swearer, holding up an arrow, call on iHeavenno punish him if he lies; but by t turning the arrow the other way, the oath be neutralized. This is magic all over. What one symbol can do, the reverse symbol can undo. True to the laws •of primitive magical reasoning, unculrtured men elsewhere still cany on the >symbolic reversal of their oaths. An wbynsuiurn chief, who had sworn an oath ’ he disliked, feus 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 consequences of perjuiy by crooking one finger, to.make it, I suppose, not a straight but a crootah loath, or lie puts his left hand to hisvlddto neutralize wlrnt the right hand idling. Here is the icfea of our “over *hfctoft;” but so far as I know this has owne'down with us to mere schoolboy's ifilaflßlmr.

A group of instructivos rites belongs to * 'Central and North Asia. Probably to this ‘day • these may be seen in Russia law roaurte i in.'Biberia the oath on the bear’s Bteaß. Wkvn an Ostyak is to be sworn a laear’s heart is brought into court and the nan 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 j meaning of this act goes beyond magic : and into religion, for we are here in the 1 religion of bear worship, among people believe that this wise and divine heist 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 Gcr- «*■ mythology. I was interested to find lit -atill in survival in Switzerland a few ’S**** when a peasant woman, whom a mischievous little English boy had irritated beyond endurance, pronounced the ancient, awful imprecation on him, “ The hear take thee!” (der Bar nimm dich!) Among the hill tribes of India a tiger’sakia is sworn on in the same sense as the bear’s bead among the Ostyak*. Rivera. » again, which to the savage and barbarian are intelligent and personal divinities, are .sworn by in strong belief that their waters nsntl punish him who takes their name in 'roiim. We can understand why Isomeric 1 heroes Swore by the riteif, when roe hear still among Hindus how the sacred Ganges - wrUbtake vengeance sore and terrible on t the children of the perjurer. It Is with ’ tfcesape personification, the same fear of tiMpudittg chastisemcntfrom the outraged 1 Dettyi t&ftt aaragfe and bkrbaric nfeo have -scWni by sky or sun. Thus the Huron Ho dr an would say in making solemn -promise: ** Heaven hears what we do this knife bXre h «ro Tim|^ IZ J)uid* ndirfii,l ff * entrails like this knife.” We have but to aim one Stage %fer in religious ideas to

reach the type of the famous Roman oaths by Jupiter, the heaven-god. He who swore held in his hands stone, praying that, If he knowingly deceived, oilers might M safe In their countries ami law*; their holy places and their tombs, but be alone might be cast out, as this stone now now—ana he flung it from him. Even more impressive whs the great treaty-oath where the pater pat rat n*, holding the sacred flint that symbolized the thunderbolt, called on Jove that if by public counsel or wicked fraud the Roman* *hould break the treaty first—” ia that day, O Jove, Muite4hou the Roihn people as I here today shall smite tills swine, and smite the heavier a* thou art the stronger!” Bo saying, he slew the victim with the sacred stoue.— Macmillan'* Magazine.