CHAPTER III. 



MUTILATIONS. 



357. Facility of exposition will be gained by ap 

 proaching indirectly the facts and conclusions here to be 

 set forth. 



The ancient ceremony of infeftment in Scotland was 

 completed thus: &quot;He [superior s attorney] would stoop 

 down, and, lifting a stone and a handful of earth, hand 

 these over to the new vassal s attorney, thereby conferring 

 upon him real, actual, and corporal possession of the 

 fief.&quot; Among a distant slightly-civilized people, a parallel 

 usage occurs. On selling his cultivated plot, a Khond. 

 having invoked the village deity to bear witness to the sale, 

 &quot; then delivers a handful of soil to the purchaser.&quot; From 

 cases where the transfer of lands for a consideration is thus 

 expressed, we may pass to cases where lands are by a simi 

 lar form surrendered to show political submission. When 

 the Athenians applied for help against the Spartans, 

 after the attack of Klcomenes, a confession of subordination 

 was demanded in return for the protection asked; and the 

 confession was made by sending earth and water. A like 

 act has a like meaning in Fiji. &quot; The soro with a basket of 

 earth ... is generally connected with war, and is pre 

 sented by the weaker party, indicating the yielding up of 

 their land to the conquerors.&quot; And so is it in India. AVlien 

 some ten years ago, Tu-wen-hsin sent his &quot; Panthay &quot; mis 

 sion to England, &quot; they carried with them pieces of rock 



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