160 JupiciaL OATHs. 
candle is to be used it is lighted by the usher, and the witness 
kneels while the candle is blown out. The interpreter thereupon 
swears the witness as follows:—‘“ You shall tell the truth, the 
whole truth. The light is extinguished, and if you do not tell the 
truth your soul will be extinguished like the candle.’ When a 
China saucer is used, it is handed to the Chinaman, who breaks 
it while he kneels, and after he has been cautioned to tell the 
truth, the formula proceeds. “The saucer is cracked, and if you 
do not tell the truth your soul will be cracked like the saucer.”’ 
At the Thames Police Court the other day both these methods 
were called in question by the Rev. George Pearcey, who has had 
32 years’ experience in various parts of China, and who stated in 
answer to Mr Mead, the magistrate, that the English forms of 
swearing were not in vogue in police courts in China. Mr 
Pearcey, who was acting as interpreter for a Chinaman, asserted 
that in China the principal and most binding form of oath was 
the cutting off of a cock’s head. He was quite satisfied that a 
hen’s head would not do as well, but the court official pointed 
out that it would be rather expensive to adopt this custom, as 
when a large number of Chinese were to be sworn it would take 
a farmyard to meet the requirements of the court. An inquiry at 
the Chinese Embassy did not result in much light being thrown 
on the subject. The First Secretary protested that he did not 
know what was the correct Chinese method of being sworn. 
“Fortunately,’’ he said, “I have never been brought before a 
Chinese police court, and forms of oath may differ very much ‘n 
various parts of the Chinese Empire. I am not, however, con- 
versant with the law on the subject, and it would therefore be 
very unwise for one to attempt to make any definite statement.”’ 
Captain J. A. Morris, the superintendent of the Strangers’ Home 
for Asiatics, West India Dock Road, says that undoubtedly one of 
the most binding oaths was the cutting off of a cock’s head, but 
the ceremonies of blowing out a light and breaking a piece of 
ware were also observed in China. From a twenty years’ experi- 
ence of “ John Chinaman,’’ however, he had come to the conclu- 
sion that the Celestial had no fears of any kind. “ No oath,’’ he 
said, “will bind a Chinaman if he does not wish to speak the 
truth.’’ When a cock’s head is cut off in administering the oath 
the bird is taken inside a joss-house, and the cutting takes place 
before a shrine, on which is an idol. The oath is to the effect 
