ome of the Baltic ports, when told to
lift their right hands to be sworn, double down the ring finger and the
little finger, as is done by bishops in the Roman Catholic Church when
giving the benediction.

In France the person making oath lifts his right hand. The oath is
administered by the presiding judge without any reference to the Deity, but
the person who swears is required to answer "Je le jure." I observed that
in Britanny, when the person sworn was ignorant of the French language, the
answer was "Va Doue," which, I believe, means in the Breton dialect, "By
God."

In the Ecclesiastical Court of Guernsey I have seen the book presented to
the person swearing open at one of the Gospels; but in the Royal Court the
book is put into the right hand of the party making oath, shut. In either
case it is required that the book should be kissed.

HONORE DE MAREVILLE.

Guernsey.

* * * * *

COMMINATORY INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS.

(Vol. viii., pp. 64. 153.)

Many inscriptions, comminatory or exhortatory, written in books and
directed to readers, have been commemorated in "N. & Q." Towards the
beginning of the present century, the most common epigram of the kind in
the French public schools was the following elegant motto, with its
accompanying illustration:

"Aspice _Pierrot_ pendu,
Quota librum n'a pas rendu!"

Poor Pierrot is exhibited in a state of suspension, as hanging from the
inverted letter L ([Gamma]), which symbolises the fatal tree. Comminatory
and exhortatory cautions not to soil, spoil, or tear books and MSS. occur
so frequently in the records of monastic libraries, that a whole album
could easily be filled with them. The coquettish bishop, Venantius
Fortunatus, has a distich on the subject. Another learned Goth, Theud-wulf,
or Theodulfus, Charlemagne's _Missus dominicus_, {473} recommends readers a
proper ablution of their hands before turning the consecrated leaves:

"Utere me, lector, mentisque in sede locato;
Cumque librum petis hinc, sit tibi _lota_ manus!"--_Saith Library._

Less lenient are the imprecations commemorated by Don Martenne and Wanley.
The one inscribed on the blank leaf of a Sacramentary of the ninth century
is to the following effect:

"Si quis eum (librum) de monasterio aliquo ingenio non redditurus,
abstraxerit, cum Juda proditore, Anna et Caipha, portionem aeternae
damnationis accipiat. Amen! Amen! Fiat! fiat!"--_Voyage Litterai