OA T 
bed medical del a gruels, or decoétions of groats or of 
meal, ar cellent dem 
. They may be fweetened, acidified, or ty plai 
They are alfo ufed locally in glyflers; and the m 
with water into porridge forms an excellent (poe 
poultice. Thomfon’s Lond. Difp. 
Oar-Grafs, in Agriculture, the n of a coarfe fort 
of grafs, that may per jo ieee be cultivated to 
advantage. See 
anes See SNaty. 
Oats, Wild, a {pecies of this fort of grain, which isa 
weed, a diffic ult to be extirpated, where it has once taken 
poffeffion; a8 ripening before harvelt, and {cattering its feed 
which remains in the ground till it is ploughed up again, 
though for a whole year or more, and will then come up 
with the corn. Some advife, as the fureft way for deftroy- 
ing it, to lay the ground down to clover, and mow the oats 
and clover together before they are ripe. 
ATARA, in Geography, one of the ian Society 
iflands, abounding with wood, S.E. of Uliet 
OATES, Tirus, in Biography, a very baie character, 
who flourithed i in the feventeenth century, was born about 
the hia ducate 
{choo oo om w me 
left 2 peepee i obtained orders in the church of Eng- 
land, tho is youth he had been a member of a Bap- 
tift church in pea ee Ratcliffe-Highway, and offi- 
ciated fome time as affiftant to his father ; he then held a 
uffex. In 1677 he 
felf a member of the fociety of Jefuit chiefly 
known as the informer of the Popifh me of eh a full 
lanc > vol. viii. 
his information had occafioned to 
feiss he ;was thrown into prifon, and tried for eae 
with refpet to what he had afferted as to that plot. Being 
convicted, he was fentenced to ftand in the pillory five 
pe 
ftimony. 
when a penfi 
trefles, and regarde 
caufe.’ e was unqueftionably a Had) infamous charaer, 
if plot as a mere fic- 
In 1698, 0 
ftored to his place among the ~ a whence he was 
OAT 
excluded in a few months as a depois | anes and a hypo- 
ite: he died in the year 170 He 
‘the moft infamous of mankind; that in early life he had 
been chaplain to colonel Pride ; ‘. was afterwards chaplain on 
pad d the | eet, whence he had 
fion 
o get into their sepi and to betray them.”?” Hume Hitt. 
Toelmin’ 3 Edition of Neal, vol. iv. and v. 
7 UaSURANDUM, 1s eae defined a religious 
affertion or afleveration ; a perfon invokes the Al- 
mighty, renounces all aim to his. mercy, or even calls for 
the divine vengeance upon himfelf, if he fpeak falfely. 
Some civilians look on this definition as too lax, fince 
it may agree to perjury; and would have this effential to 
an oath, that the ae affirmed be true. But this is arbi- 
tr. 
oath is efteemed a kind of civil medium, between the 
per. ery on that gives and him to whom it is given; by which 
ome controverfy or other matter, which cou!d not other- 
ife te rnined, is brought to an iffue. Its form, and 
alae it is aed, are re arbitrary, and 
various in different aie 
The oaths we make to God are called vows, and in fome 
cafes facraments. 
OatH, ina legal fenfe, . a folemn action, whereby God 
is called to beer the truth of an affirmation given before 
one or more perfons eee to receive the fame. 
The forms of cake like other religious ceremonies, have 
been always various, but confifting, for the moft part, of fome 
bodily a€tion, and of a prefcribed form of words. Amongft 
i paflage in the 144th Pfalm, «“* Whofe 
mouth {peaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right han 
of falfoood.”” e form is retained in Scotland a 
amongtt the fame Jews. An oath of fidelity was taken, 
the fervant’s putting his hand under the thigh of his ‘ord 
(fee Gen. xxiv. 2.) ; and hence, with no great variation, is 
perhaps derived the form of doing homage at this day, by 
putting — hands between the knees, and within the hed 
of the Amongtt the Greeks and pete the form 
varied al the fubje and occafion of the oa In private 
contracts, the parties took hold of each ee hand, whilit 
hey fwore to the performance; or they touched the altar 
of the god, by whofe divinity they {wore. Upon more fo- 
mn occafions it cuftom to fl im ; and the 
beaft being Aruck down, with certain ceremonies and invo- 
cations, gave to the expreflions, repvew ognor, ferire 
padum, and to our , thefe, 
rad oaths in Chrittian 
o country in the 
world, as archdeacon "Paley fier, oa contrived, either 
the oath is repeated to the juror, 
minifters it, adding in the conclufion, “ So hel p you 
The energy of the fentence refides in the particle fo; /, 
that is, hae lege, upon condition of my {peaking the truth, 
or ae the promife, and not otherwife, ** May Go 
Ip m The juror, whilit he hears or repeats the words 
of the a holds his right hand upon a bible, or other 
book, containing the four gofpels. He then kifles the 
ok; 
a 
a 
