638 



OUCIN 



ORDEAL 



the Grace-, who were specially worshipped in the 

 city. In 1H><0 Schliemaiin excavated there an old 

 'treasury,' or lather royal tomb <ir mausoleum, still 

 larger than tluit at Myceme (q.v.). See O. Muller, 

 Orctiomfiuu and die Minytr (1844), and Schlie- 

 nmnn, Orchomenot (1881). There was a second 

 Orchomenon in Arcadia, lying NNW. <>f Mantinea. 



Orrill. ">r OitriNAl., C,;H,<CH,) (OH) r This 

 substance is found in tli free state in the lichens 

 fnnii which Archil and Litmus (q.v.) are prejiared. 

 It is formed when tli<> aciils which occur in these 

 plant* arc Ihule.l with barvta water or submitted 

 to dry distillation. It is also prepared artificially 

 from the nitro derivatives of the hydrocarlxm 

 toluene. As shown by the formula, orcinal is a 

 di-acid phonol, and ap|vears in large colourless 

 crystals which turn a reddish -brown colour when 

 exposed to the air. llv the action of ainnionia and 

 the oxygen of the air it is converted into orcein, 

 07(17X6,, which is the colouring matter of archil. 



Ordeal ( A.S. ordfl, orddl, the prefix or- mean- 

 ing 'out,' and ilfl, i/n/, 'a dealing;' cognates are 

 the Dutch oordeel, and Ger. Urtkeil, ' judgment '), 

 a practice which has prevailed largely among vari- 

 ous widely-separated nations, of referring disputed 

 questions, particularly such as relate to the guilt 

 or innocence of an individual, to the judgment of 

 God, determined either hy lot or by the success 

 of certain experiment*. And there need be no 

 dotiht that it is often successful in the detection 

 of a criminal whose trepidation liefore the dreaded 

 ordeal hetrays him, conscious of his guilt, and more 

 than half afraid of the occult intluences he is altout 

 to outrage. Of its existence among the ancient 

 Jews we nave an instance in Numbers v. , where a 

 Hebrew woman, accused of adultery, is required to 

 drink the waters of jealousy as a test of innocence; 

 a similar ordeal for incontinence is still in use 

 among the natives of the Gold Coast of Africa. 

 ( 'ompui -gallon of accused tiersons by fire, as existing 

 among the tlieeks, i- referred to in the Antigone 

 of Sophocles. Among the Hindus the ordeal has 

 been in use to lie practised in nine different ways 

 by the balanee, \ty fire, by water, by poison, by 

 the .W/.i or drinking water in which images of the 

 sun and other deities had been washed, by clieiri mi- 

 rice, by hot oil, by red-hot iron, and by drawing 

 two images out of a jar into which they have been 

 thrown. 



Livingstone describes the practice of ordeal as 

 common among all the negro races north of the 

 y.aml>e-i. ' When a man suspects that any of his 

 wives have bewitehad him he sends for the witch- 

 doctor, and all the wives go forth into the field, 

 and remain fa-ting till that person has made an 

 infusion of the plant (called goho). They all drink 

 it, each one holding up her hand to heaven in 

 attestation of her innocency. Those who vomit 

 it are considered innocent, while those whom it 

 purges are pronounced guilty, and put to death by 

 tunning. ThdfaUMMWl return to their homes and 

 slaughter a coek as a thank-offering to their 

 guardian spirits.' The women themselves eager] v 

 desire the test on the slightest provocation ; eacli 

 i- COM-, ion- of her own innocence, and has the 

 fullest faith in the mtutvi ('the ordeal') clearing 

 all but the guilty. There are varieties of procedure 

 amontj' the dillcient tiilics. The HaroUte pour the 

 medicine, down the throat of a cock or dog, and 

 judge of the innocence or guilt of the person 

 accused by the vomiting or purging of the animal. 

 The Calabar Itonn (q.v.) is also used for the ordeal ; 

 as was Tanghinin (q.v.) in Madagascar. 



Throughout Europe in the dark ages the ordeal 

 existed under the sanction of law and of the church, 

 and was closely related to the oath. The most 

 prevalent kinds of ordeal were those ufjire, water. 



and the uttyrr of Ixttt/e. Fire onlctil was only 

 allowed M persons of high rank. The accused had 

 to carry a piece of red-hot iron for some distance in 

 his hand, or to walk nine feel barefoot and blind- 

 folded over red-hot ploughshares. The hand or 

 foot was IxMind up and inspected three days after- 

 wards ; if the accused had esca|>cd unhurt he was 

 pronounced innocent ; if otherwise, guiltv. t'nder 

 such a judicial system there were iirolmhlv feu- 

 acquittals ; but there can be little doubt that in 

 the severer kinds of ordeal precaution- were taken 

 by the clergy to protect those whom they wi-hcd 

 to clear from suspicion. And the feats of modern 

 jugglers suggest possibilities of ollicial t rickety 

 which may at once have saved the credit of the 

 ordeal ami cleared those meant to be acquitted. 

 Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, 

 when suspected of a criminal intrigue with Ahvvn, 

 Uishop of Winchester, triumphantly vindicated her 

 character by walking unhurt over red hot plough- 

 shares. H'nter ordeal was the usual mode of trial 

 allowed to bondsmen and rustics, and was of two 

 kinds the ordeal of boiling tenter and of eold 

 irntcr. The ordeal of boiliny imti-r, according to 

 the laws of Athelstan, consisted of taking a stone 

 out of boiling water, where the hand had to be 

 inserted as deep as the wrist ; what was called the 

 triple ordeal deepened the water to the elUiw. 

 The person allowed the ordeal of cold tcatcr the 

 usual mode of trial for witchcraft was (lung into a 

 river or pond ; if he floated without any appearance 

 of swimming he was judged guilty ; while if he 

 sank he was acquitted. The irai/i > of brittle was a 

 natural accompaniment of a state of society which 

 allowed men to take the law into their own hands. 

 The defeated party, if he craved his life, was 

 allowed to live as a ' recreant,' that is, on retract- 

 ing the perjury which he had sworn to. 



Other kinds of ordeal were practised in particu- 

 lar circumstances in different parts of Europe. In 

 the ordeal of the bier, a suspected murderer was 

 required to touch the Ixwly of the murdered man, 

 and pronounced guilty if the Mood flowed from his 

 wounds. Undoubtedly this touched a primitive 

 time, when death was not fully understood, anil 

 the lifeless l>ody was supposed still capable of 

 thought and action. And to this day English 

 peasants exjM?ct every one who sees a corpse to 

 touch it to show that he bears the dead no ill- 

 will. The ordeal of the eucharist was in use 

 among the clergy : the accused party took the 

 sacrament in attestation of innocence, it Ix-ing 

 believed that, if guilty, he would be immediately 

 vi-ited with divine punishment for the sacrilege. 

 A somewhat similar ordeal was that of the <<//*>(/, 

 or consecrated bread and cheese : if the accused 

 swallowed it freely he was pronounced innocent ; 

 if it stuck in his throat he was presumed to be 

 guilty. Godwin, Earl of Kent, in the reign of 

 Edward the Confessor, when accused of the murder 

 of the king's brother, is -aid to have appealed to 

 the onleal of the corsned, and been choked by it. 

 There can be no donlit that the popular English 

 a-s e\ eialion '.May this bit choke me if I lie!' is a 

 distinct survival. An early form of ordeal, aliol- 

 i-hecl by Louis le Debonnaire in 816, was that of 

 the crott: the accuser and accused stood upright 

 before a cross, and he who first fell, or shifted his 

 position, was pronounced guilty. It was done away 

 with as being irreverent towards the mystery of 

 the cross. IJesides these, there was the ordeal by 

 lot, dependent on the throw of a pair of dice, 

 one marked with a cross, the other plain. 



Trial by ordeal at first carried with it the 

 sanction of the priests a- well as of the civil power, 

 though the clergy in the course of time came to 

 discountenance it. In England it seems to have 

 been continued till the middle, of the 13th century. 



