OAT OAXACA. 



hundred miles, in a line parallel with the Nile ; it is 

 the first stage of the Darfour caravan, and it contains 

 interesting ruins : the Little Oasis, or that of El 

 Wah, or El Kassar, of which the best account has 

 been given by Belzoni ; the Northern Oasis, or that 

 ..f Shvah (29 12' N. ; Ion. 26 6' E.), inhabited by a 

 population of about 8000 souls, and supposed by some 

 to contain the ruins of the temple of Jupiter Aminon : 

 the Western Oasis (lat. 20 N.), first visited by Ed- 

 mondstone in 1819, is composed of twelve villages. 

 See his Journey to the Oases of Upper Egypt (Lon- 

 don, 1823) ; see also the Travels of Browne, Henni- 

 ker, and Caillaud. 



OAT (avena). The species most commonly culti- 

 vated is the A. sativa, a grass, bearing a few large 

 flowers, which are disposed in a loose panicle, fre- 

 quently inclined in one direction. The calyx consists 

 of two valves, enclosing several florets, bearing on 

 their outer valves a twisted awn. The seed is oblong 

 and pointed at each extremity. Another species, the 

 naked oat (A. nuda), differing only in not having the 

 seed adherent to the floral valves, and perhaps only 

 a variety, is also frequently cultivated. The native 

 country of these two species, like that of our other 

 cultivated grains, is entirely unknown. They suc- 

 ceed only in cold arid moist climates, and the seed is 

 employed indifferently for the same purposes. The 

 meal is nutritious, and, in some countries, forms an 

 important article of food ; the bread made of vt is of 

 a good quality, and is extensively used in Scotland. 

 Beer is made from this grain in Britain and Poland; 

 and it is, besides, distilled to procure ardent spirits. 

 Oats are the best food for horses, and for this pur- 

 pose are principally cultivated. They are also re- 

 commended as a good winter fodder for sheep, a 

 handful to be given daily. 



OATES, TITUS. This infamous character was 

 born about 1619. He was the son of an Anabaptist 

 preacher, and was educated at Merchant Tailors' 

 school, whence he removed to Cambridge, and after- 

 wards took orders. In 1677, he pretended a conver- 

 sion to the Roman Catholic religion, and was ad- 

 mitted into the society of Jesuits ; but subse- 

 quently declared himself a Protestant, and, in con- 

 junction with one doctor Tonge, gave information of 

 a pretended popish plot, for the destruction of the 

 Protestant religion, and falsely accused the Catholic 

 lords Petre, Powis, Bellasis, Arundel of Wardour, 

 and other persons of quality, of being concerned in 

 the conspiracy, several of whom, including lord Staf- 

 ford, were executed. Such was the credulity of the 

 times, that he was rewarded with a pension of 1200 

 per annum, and lodged, for safety, at the palace of 

 Whitehall. On the accession of James II., however, 

 he \vas thrown into prison, and indicted for perjury ; 

 and, being convicted, was sentenced to stand in the 

 pillory five times a year during his life, and to be 

 whipped from Aldgate to Newgate, and thence to 

 Tyburn ; the last part of which sentence was exe- 

 cuted with great severity. At the revolution, the 

 current of popular prejudice again setting in in his 

 favour, he was rewarded with a pension of .1000 

 per annum. In 1698, he sought to be restored to 

 the congregation of Anabaptists, to which he had 

 at first belonged ; but in the course of a few months 

 he was excluded, as a hypocrite and disorderly per- 

 son. He died in 1705. In early life, he had been 

 chaplain on board the fleet, from which he was dis- 

 missed for unnatural practices. See Popish Plot. 



OATH (in Latin, jusjurandum, juramentum) ; a 

 solemn assertion or promise, with the invocation of 

 God to be a witness of the truth of what we say ; 

 hence the end of the judicial oath " So help me 

 God." Such an invocation is of very early origin, it 

 being the most natural and solemn confirmation of 



the truth oi' what is said. Some sects consider oaths 

 altogether as a violation of the command of Christ, 

 " Swear not at all ;" but this is not the proper place 

 to discuss that point ; the reader will find it treated 

 in many works on moral philosophy, for instance, 

 Paley's. Such a solemn invocation, however, should 

 obviously be reserved for important occasions. The 

 custom-house oaths, so numerous in Britain, can 

 hardly fail to diminish the character of sacredness 

 and obligation belonging to such a promise. 



The obligation of an oath is variously considered 

 by different religions and sects : some consider oaths 

 binding even if the promise be, in itself, criminal, or 

 has been extorted by extreme fear. The Greeks 

 connected the idea of awful solemnity with an oath. 

 In the middle ages, oaths were enormously abused, 

 and, at the same time, most superstitiously observed. 

 In that period, oaths were often obtained by fraud, and 

 the promiser, nevertheless, considered himself abso- 

 lutely bound, by them. William the Conqueror, 

 when he made his prisoner Harold swear to aid him 

 in ascending the throne of England, " secretly con- 

 veyed under the altar, on which Harold agreed 

 to swear, the reliques of some of the most re- 

 vered martyrs ; and, when Harold had taken the 

 oath, he showed him the reliques, and admonished 

 him to observe, religiously, an engagement, which 

 had been ratified by so tremendous a sanction." 

 Hume, vol. i. 



The pope is believed, by the Catholics, to have 

 authority to absolve from the obligation of an oath ; 

 and this is a natural consequence of the papal attri- 

 butes. In the middle ages, this gave him a fearful 

 power. 



In civil law, oaths are divided into two classes : 

 1. oaths by which something is asserted as true 

 (juramentum assertorium), either because we know 

 it from our own observation (juramentum veri(atis), 

 or because we consider it true after full investiga 

 tion, or, at least, have no reason to doubt the fact 

 (juramentum credulitatis seu ignorant 101), Most 

 oaths, in the forms of judicial process, are juramenta 

 assertoria ; for instance, the oath of a party that he 

 has good cause to ask a delay of trial ; also the oath 

 offered by one party to the other, for the settlement 

 of a fact in dispute (juramentum delatum) ; and the 

 oath of valuation, by which a party asserts that he 

 estimates the damage which he has suffered at such 

 a rate. 2. The second class of oaths are the jura- 

 menta promissoria, by which we promise something : 

 such are the oaths of princes to rule constitutionally, 

 or to protect such a sect or interest, &c.; the oath of 

 allegiance ; the oath of office ; the oath of witnesses, 

 if they take an oath before testifying. Oaths to per- 

 form illegal acts do not bind, nor do they excuse the 

 performance of the act. Perjury is the wilful viola- 

 tion of an oath administered by a lawful authority to 

 a witness in a judicial proceeding. The breach of a 

 promissory oatt), whether public or private, is not 

 punishable as perjury. 



OAXACA ; formerly, an intendancy in the vice 

 royalty of New Spain ; at present, one of the state 

 of the Mexican confederacy, comprising the greate 

 part of the isthmus of Tehuantepec, between the gnl 

 of Mexico and the Pacific ocean. It has the state 

 La Puebla on the west, that of Vera Cruz and that of 

 Tabasco on the east. The climate is healthy, and 

 the soil fertile. The finest fruits, cotton, sugar, 

 indigo, and wine, are among the productions. The 

 mulberry tree was formerly extensively cultivated, 

 and silk was produced in large quantities ; but the 

 natives, exasperated by the treatment of the Span- 

 iards, extirpated it. Gold and silver abound. The 

 cochineal plant thrives here better than in any other 

 part of Mexico. The capital, of the same name, a 





