His other questions were thus answered; "That the leaves of pippala were spread about in the hands of the accufed, not heaped one above another; that the man, who performed the fire-ordeal, was not much agitated, but feemed in full poffeffion of his faculties; that the perfon tried by hot oil was at firft afraid, but perfifted, after he was burned, in denying the theft; neverthelefs, as he previously had entered into a written agreement, that, if his hand fhould be hurt, he would pay the value of the goods, the magiftrate for that reafon thought himself juftified in compelling payment; that when the before-mentioned ingredients of the homa were thrown into the fire, the Pandits, fitting round the hearth, fung the Slócas prefcribed in the Sastra. That the form of the hearth is established in the Véda and in the Dherma Sástra; and this fire-place is alfo called Védi; that, for the fmaller oblations, they raife a little ground for the hearth, and kindle fire on it; for the higher oblations, they fink the ground to receive the fire where they perform the hóma, and this facred hearth they call cunda." The Governor then asked, why the trials by fire, by the hot ball, and the veffel of oil, if there be no effential difference between them, are not all called fire-ordeals; and it was humbly answered, that, according to fome Pandits, they were all three different; whilst others infifted, that the trial by fire was diftinct from that by the veffel, though the trial by the hot ball and the head of a lance was the fame; but that, in the apprehenfion of his refpe&tful fervant, they were all ordeals by fire.

THE

THE

1.

INDIAN LAW OF ORDEAL,

Verbally translated from Yágyawalcya.

ΤΗ

HE balance, fire, water, poison, the idolThese are the ordeals ufed below for the proof of innocence, when the accufations are heavy, and when the accufer offers to hazard a mul&t, (if he fhould fail :)

But

2. Or one party may be tried, if he pleafe, by ordeal, and the other muft then rifque an amercement. the trial may take place even without any wager, if the crime committed be injurious to the prince,

3. The fovereign, having fummoned the accufed, while his clothes are yet moift from bathing, at sunrise, before he has broken his faft, fhall caufe all trials by ordeal to be conducted in the prefence of Bráhmans.

4. The balance is for women, children, old men, the blind, the lame, Brahmans, and the fick; for the Súdra, fire or water, or seven barley corns of poison.

5. Unless the lofs of the accufer amount to a thoufand pieces of filver, the accused must not be tried by the red hot ball, nor by poifon, nor by the scales; but, if the offence be against the king, or if the crime be heinous, he must acquit himself by one of thofe trials in all cafes.

6. He who has recourse to the balance, must be attended by perfons experienced in weighing, and go down into one fcale, with an equal weight placed in the other, and a groove (with water in it) marked on the beam.

7. Thou, O balance, art the manfion of truth ; "thou waft anciently contrived by deities: declare the truth, therefore, O giver of fuccefs, and clear me " from all fufpicion.

8. "If I am guilty, O venerable as my own mother, then fink me down; but if innocent, raife me aloft." -Thus fhall he addrefs the balance.

9. If he fink, he is convicted, or if the fcales be broken; but if the ftring be not broken, and he rise aloft, he must be acquitted.

10. On the trial by fire, let both hands of the accused be rubbed with rice in the husk, and well examined: then let feven leaves of the Aswatt' ha (the religious fig-tree) be placed on them, and bound with feven threads.

11. "Thou, O fire, pervadeft all beings; O cause of purity, who giveft evidence of virtue and of fin, declare the truth in this my hand."

12. When he has pronounced this, the priest shall. place in both hands an iron ball, red hot, and weighing fifty* pala's.

13. Having taken it, he shall step gradually into feven circles, each with a diameter of fixteen fingers, and feparated from the next by the same space.

* A pala is four carsha's, and a carba, eighty ractica's, or feeds of the Gunjà creeper, each weighing above a grain and a quarter, or correaly, 1gr. 5-16ths.

14. If

14. If, having caft away the hot ball, he fhall again have his hands rubbed with rice in the hufk, and fhall fhow them unburned, he will prove his innocence. Should the iron fall during the trial, or fhould a doubt arife (on the regularity of the proceedings) he must be tried again.

15. "Preserve me, O, Varuna, by declaring the truth." Thus having invoked the God of Waters, the accufed fhall plunge his head into the river or pool, and hold both thighs of a man, who fhall ftand in it up to his navel.

16. A fwift runner fhall then haften to fetch an arrow fhot at the moment of his plunging; and if, while the 'runner is gone, the prieft fhall fee the head of the accufed under water, he must be difcharged as

innocent.

17.

"Thou, O poifon, art the child of Brahmá, fted"faft in justice and in truth: clear me then from this heavy charge, and, if I have fpoken truly, become "nectar to me.'

18. Saying this, he fhall fwallow the poifon Sárnga, from the tree which grows on the mountain Himalaya; and if he digeft it without any inflammation, the prince hall pronounce him guiltless.

19. Or the priest fhall perform rites to the image of fome tremendous deity, and, having bathed the idol, fhall make the accufed to drink three handfuls of the water that has dropped from it:

20. If, in fourteen days after, he fuffer no dreadful calamity from the act of the deity, or of the king, he muft indubitably be acquitted.

THE

XXIV.

THE

SECOND ANNIVERSARY DISCOUrse,

Delivered 24 FEBRUARY, 1785,

BY

IF

THE PRESIDENT.

GENTLEMEN,

the Deity of the Hindus, by whom all their just requests are believed to be granted with fingular indulgence, had proposed last year to gratify my warmest wifhes, I could have defired nothing more ardently than the fuccefs of your inftitution; because I can defire nothing in preference to the general good, which your plan feems calculated to promote, by bringing to light many ufeful and interefting tracts, which, being too fhort for feparate publication, might lie many years concealed, or, perhaps, irrecoverably perifh. My wifhes are accomplished, without an invocation to Cámadhénu; and your Society, having already passed its infant state, is advancing to maturity with every mark of a healthy and robuft conftitution. When I reflect, indeed, on the variety of fubjects which have been difcuffed before you, concerning the hiftory, laws, manners, arts, and antiquities of Asia, I am unable to decide whether my pleasure or my furprise be the greater; for I will not diffemble, that your progress has far exceeded my expections; and, though we muft feriously deplore the

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