deponent went to the appointed number of
churches, and at each, taking the ring of the
church door in his hand, repeated the oath.

One of the most curious specimens of swearing
men by that to which they attached most
importance, is to be found in a Hindoo law. It
says: "Let a judge swear a Brahmin by his
veracity; a soldier by his horses, his elephants,
or his arms; an agriculturist by his cows, his
grain, or his money; and a Soudra by all his
crimes."

In India, as also in England and in Ireland,
pregnant women decline to take an oath. A
Highlander, when sworn on the Gospels or the
cross, cares little for his oath; but will keep it
if sworn on the point of his dirk. The
degenerate Romans of the Lower Empire thought
it better to break an oath to God than to the
emperor, because the former might forgive
them, whilst the latter would not. Of all the
Roman oaths, the military oath was the most
sacred. It was taken upon the ensigns.
Soldiers took it voluntarily, and promised (with
imprecations) that they would not desert from
the army, and not leave the ranks unless to
fight against the enemy or to save a Roman
citizen. In the year 216 before Christ, the
soldiers were compelled by the tribunes to take
an oath that they would meet at command of
the consuls, and not leave their standards without
their orders, thus making the military oath
a jusjurandum. In the time of the Empire
(according to Dionysius) a clause was added to
the military oath, by which the soldiers declared
that they would consider the safety of the
emperor more important than anything else,
and that they did not love either themselves or
their children more than their sovereign. The
oath was renewed each time that the soldier
enlisted for a campaign.

Oaths have been sung in doggrel rhyme.
From some verses headed, "The New Oath
Examined and Found Guilty," We take the
following:

Since oaths are Solemn Serious Things,
The best security to Kings,
And since we've all Allegiance swore
To J—— as king, or Successor,
I can't imagine how we may
Swear that or Fealty away.
Nought sure but Death or Resignation
Can free us from that Obligation.
All Oaths are vain, both those and these,
If we may break 'em as we please;
And did I fairly swallow both,
"Who'd give a Farthing for my Oath?
    *            *            *            *            *
And now I think I've made it clear
We cannot with good Conscience swear,
We cannot take Oaths Old and New
And to both Faithful prove and True.

The manner in which the natives of India are
sworn is curious. A piece of lime (chumam),
about the size of a pea, and a piece of betel-leaf
are given to the witness to chew and swallow,
and he is then solemnly warned that if he speaks
anything but the truth after swallowing the
above, the first time he expectorates afterwards
his heart's blood will come up. Now the
amalgamation by mastication of the leaf and the
lime with the gastric juices produces a
substance much resembling blood. This
superstition still prevails, and we could relate many
instances.

When a Chinese is sworn, a live cock is
brought into court, and the head of the bird cut
off. In our earlier writers some oaths are
impious and irreverent. Even in Chaucer it is
advisable to make selections:

The Host swears, "By my father's soul."
Sir Thopas, "By ale and bread."
Arcite, "By my pan (head)."
Theseus, "By mighty Mars the rede."
The Carpenter's wife, "By St. Thomas of
Kent."
The Marchaunt, "By St. Thomas of Inde."
The Cambridge scholar, "By my father's
kinne."

Peter, the apprentice in Henry the Sixth,
holds up his hands, and, accusing Horner, says:
"By these ten bones, my lord, he did speak
them to me in the garret, one night as we were
scouring my lord of York's armour."

Much discussion has taken place at various
times respecting the form of taking an oath,
and the term corporal oath. Archbishop Whitgift,
in a sermon before Queen Elizabeth, thus
addressed her: "As all your predecessors were
at their coronation, so you also were sworn
before all the nobility and bishops then present,
and in the presence of God, and in His stead,
to him that anointed you, 'to maintain the
church lands and the rights belonging to it;'
and this testified openly at the holy altar, by
laying your hands on the Bible then lying
upon it."

Until the arrival of the English, the custom
of swearing upon the Holy Evangelists was
unknown to the Irish, who resorted instead to
crosiers, bells, and other sacred reliquaries, to
give solemnity to their declarations. Even
when the Gospels were used, it was not uncommon
to introduce some other object to render
the oath doubly binding. At the time of
Edward the First, official oaths were taken by
presenting the book, when opened, to the person
about to be sworn, in the manner at this day
used in the Ecclesiastical Court at Guernsey.
In the reign of James the First, the oath of
allegiance was taken upon bended knee. There
is a curious account of an oath taken by the
Earl of Northumberland, in a manuscript which
is preserved in the Lambeth library. The
manuscript is, moreover, illuminated. The earl is
represented kneeling before an altar, on which
is placed a chalice, covered with the corporal
cloth; in front of the chalice, and upon the
corporal cloth, but uncovered, rests a large wafer,
the "consecrated body of our Lord," which
the earl touches with his right hand, whilst he
appears to be speaking the words of the oath.
The quotation is from a French metrical history
of the deposition of King Richard the Second:

". . .Thus the king spake unto them;
and they all agreed thereto, saying, 'Sire, let the