Show ari FORMS OF OATHS some of the bo most ancient modes of swear ing recorded by tiie the ancient germans swore by their pods gods by their swords and by their beards trio i nav ians besides appealing to the pods gods touched a bloody rid diug in the of a 1 priest in some parts of chini china a witness is sworn upon a saucer which is broken at the moment lie he takes tho the oath the hindmo swears by the veda the sacred book of his religion reli 0 ion in like ai manlier the mohammedan is sworn on the koran in egypt the custom prevailed of swearing swearing swea rint by the goose this i is i s said to have been on account of tile the vi veneration in which the goose was held in ill that country in mada madagascar 1 the people swear either cither by their sovereign or by their mothers others rn and there are two forms of witnessing the oath one to strike the wiler and the other to spear the calf the tha ancient greeks and romans swore b by y jupiter minerva neptune and other oilier t godi and goddesses laying their heads upon the altar of the divinity dworn by in laking a particularly sacred oath ancient anciently aly the jews swore by jerusalem by tile the temple bythe by the god of isriel israel and also by broken glass this last form being similar to the chinese custom of breakie breaking a saucer a against agrist the witness box imbruce in bruce s travels itis it is said that in abyssinia they took the alio two forefingers of my right hand one after tile the other anil and then kissed them a form of shearin swearing used cherti at least among those wl who io call themselves christians the most ancient form of shearin swearing of which there is any record is thal that t mentioned in the bible in genesis whre abraham shearin swearing 0 his eldest c cran required him to place his hand under his abrahams thigh Z this thib form is mentioned iu in several places in the Old Testament according to oldfield in his expedition into the interior of africa bv bir tile tha niger at pla placing cinga 0 a naked sword or knife to the throat is looked upon as the strongest 0 proof of innocence and tile most s solemn form of oath they can administer inthis in this manner thel the king Cing is sworn sometimes at the point of a poisoned arrow chica chicago 0 news |