BY ORDEAL. 401 



His other queflions were thus anfwered : " That the 

 leaves of pippala were fpread about in the hands of the 

 accufed, not heaped one above another; that the man, 

 who performed the ordeal, was not much agitated, 

 but feemed in full pofTeflion of his faculties ; that the 

 perfon tried by hot oil was at firft afraid, but perfifted, 

 after he was burned, in denying the theft ; neverthe- 

 lefs, as he previoufly had entered into a written agree- 

 ment, that, if his hand mould be hurt, he would pay 

 the value of the goods, the magiftrate for that reafon 

 thought himfelf juftified in compelling payment; that, 

 when the before mentioned ingredients of the homa were 

 thrown into the fire, the Pandits, fitting round the 

 hearth, fung the Sloe as prefcribed in the Sdjira. That 

 the form of the hearth is eftablifhed in the Veda and in 

 the Dherma Sdjira; and this fire-place is alfo called 

 Vedi ; that, for the fmaller oblations, they raife a little 

 ground for the hsarth, and kindle fire on it; for the 

 higher oblations, they fink the ground, to receive the 

 fire where they perform the homa, and this facred hearth 

 they call cunda." The Governor then afked, why the 

 trials by fire, by the hot ball, and the vefl'el of oil, if 

 there be no effential difference between them, are not 

 all called fire-ordeals; and it was humbly anfwered, 

 that according to fome Pandits, they were all three 

 different ; whilfl others infilled, that the trial by fire 

 was diftinct from that by the veflel, though the trial by 

 the hot ball, and the head of a lance, was the fame ; 

 but that, in the apprehenfion of his refpe&ful fervant, 

 they were all ordeals by Jire. 



THE 



