3 o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



order was becoming regular and settled, the wise men turned their 

 minds to devise guarantees stronger than mere yes and no. Thus the 

 ordeal and the oath were introduced, that wrong-doing should not be 

 concealed or denied, that unrighteous claims should not be backed 

 by false witness, and that covenants made should not be broken. 



The principles on which these ordeals and oaths were invented 

 and developed may to this day be plainly made out. It is evident 

 that the matter was referred to the two intellectual orders of early 

 times, the magicians and the priests. Each advised after the manner 

 of his own profession. The magician said, " With my symbols and 

 charms I will try the accused, and bind the witness and the promiser." 

 The priest said, " I will call upon my spirits, and they shall find out the 

 hidden thing, and punish the lie and the broken vow." Now, magic 

 and religion are separate in their nature and origin. Magic is based 

 on a delusive tendency arising out of the association of ideas, namely, 

 the tendency to believe that things which are ideally connected in 

 our minds must therefore be really connected in the outer world. 

 Religion is based on the doctrine of spiritual beings, souls, demons, 

 or deities, who take cognizance of men and interpose in their affairs. 

 It is needful to keep this absolute distinction clear in our minds, for 

 on it depends our finding our mental way through a set of complicated 

 proceedings, in which magical and religious elements have become 

 mixed in the most intricate manner. Well they might, considering 

 how commonly the professions of sorcerer and priest have overlapped 

 so as even to be combined in one and the same person. But it seems, 

 from a general survey of the facts of ordeals and oaths, that on the 

 whole the magical element in them is earliest and underlying, while 

 the religious element is apt to come in later in history, often only 

 taking up and consecrating some old magical process. 



In the series of instances to be brought into view, this blending 

 of the religious with the magical element will be repeatedly observ- 

 able. It will be seen also that the ordeal and the oath are not only 

 allied in their fundamental principles, but that they continually run 

 into one another in their use. Oaths, we shall see, may be made to 

 act as ordeals, and ordeals are brought in as tests of oaths. While 

 recognizing this close connection, it will be convenient to divide the 

 two and take them in order according to their practical application, 

 ordeals being proceedings for the discovery of wrong-doers, while 

 oaths are of the nature of declarations of undertakings. 



The association of ideas which serves as a magical basis for an 

 ordeal is quite childish in its simplicity. Suppose it has to be decided 

 which of two men has acted wrongfully, and appeal is had to the 

 ordeal. There being no evidence on the real issue, a fanciful issue is 

 taken instead, which can be settled, and the association of ideas does 

 not rest. Thus in Borneo, when two Dyaks have to decide which is 

 in the right, they have two equal lumps of salt given them to drop 



