ous as rascals often are, would be
so frightened that his mouth would be dry, and would thus betray his own
peccadillo. Another Hindoo mode was, to give a certain quantity of
poison in butter, and if it did no harm, to acquit. Here, the man who
mixes the dose is evidently the important person. In Madagascar they
give some _tangena_ water. Now tangena is a fruit of which a little
vomits the patient, and a good deal poisons or kills him; a quality
which sufficiently explains how they manage that ordeal.

Ordeals by fire and water are still practiced, with some variations, in
Hindostan, China, Pegu, Siberia, Congo, Guinea, Senegambia and other
pagan nations. Some of those still in use are odd enough. A Malabar one
is to swim across a certain river, which is full of crocodiles. A Hindoo
one is, for the two parties to an accusation to stand out doors, each
with one bare leg in a hole, he to win who can longest endure the bites
they are sure to get. This would be a famous method in some of the New
Jersey and New York and Connecticut seashore lowlands I know of. The
mosquitoes would decide cases both civil and criminal, at a speed that
would make a Judge of the Supreme Court as dizzy as a humming-top.
Another Hindoo plan was for the accused to hold his head under water
while a man walked a certain distance. If the walker chose to be lazy
about it, or the prisoner had diseased lungs, this would be a rather
severe method. The Wanakas in Eastern Africa, draw a red hot needle
through the culprit's lips--a most judicious place to get hold of an
African!--and if the wound bleeds, he is guilty. In Siam, accuser and
accused are put into a pen and a tiger is let loose on them. He whom the
tiger kills is guilty. If he kills both, both are guilty; if neither,
they try another mode.

Blackstone says that an ordeal might always be tried by attorney. I
should think this would give the legal profession a very lively time
whenever the courts were chiefly using tigers, poison, drowning, fire
and red hot iron, but not so much so when a little swearing or eating
was the only thing required.

This whole business of ordeals is a singular superstition, and the
extent of its employment shows how ready the human race is to believe
that God is constantly influencing even their ordinary private affairs.
In other words, it is in principle like the doctrine of "special
providence." Looked at as a superstition however--considered as a
humbug--the histo