BY ORDEAL. 



397 



vent to the place prepared, and endeavoured to diffuade 

 the appellor from requiring the accufed to be tried by 

 fire, adding "if his hand be not burned, you fhall cer- 

 " tainly be imprifoned." The accufer, not deterred 

 by this menace, perfifted in demanding the trial. The 

 ceremony, therefore, was thus conducted in the pre- 

 fence of me, Ali Ibrahim Khan. 



The Pandits of the court and the city, having wor- 

 shipped the God of Knowledge, and prefented their 

 oblation of clarified butter to the fire, formed nine cir- 

 cles of cow-dung on the ground j and, having bathed 

 the appellee in the Ganges, brought him with his clothes 

 wet ; when, to remove all fufpicion of deceit, they 

 wafhed his hands with pure water : then, having writ- 

 ten a ftate of the cafe, and the words of the menira, on 

 a Palmyra leaf, they tied it on his head; and put into 

 his hands, which they opened and joined together, 

 feven leaves of pippal, feven of jend, feven blades of 

 darbha grafs, a few flowers, and fome barley moiftened 

 with curds, which they fattened with feven threads of 

 raw white cotton. After this they made the iron ball 

 red hot, and, taking it up with tongs, placed it in his 

 hands. He walked with it, ftep by (tep, the fpace of 

 three gaz and a half, through each of the feven in- 

 termediate rings, and threw the ball into the ninth, 

 where it burnt the grafs that had been left in it. He 

 next, to prove his veracity, rubbed fome rice in the 

 hufk between his hands ; which were afterwards ex- 

 amined, and were fo far from being burned, that not 

 even a blifier was raifed oij either of them. Since it is 

 the nature of fire to burn, the officers of the court, 

 and people of Benares, near five hundred of whom at- 

 tended the ceremony, were altonifhed at the event ; 

 and this well-wifher to mankind was perfectly amazed. 

 It occurred to his weak apprehenfion, that probably the 

 frefh leaves, and other things, which, as it has been 

 mentioned, were placed on the hands of the accufed, 



had 



