OF KAMAON. I7I 



in the following manner : the names of the parties being written in separate 

 slips of paper, these were rolled up, and laid in front of an idol in a temple, 

 the priest of which was then employed to take up one of the rolled slips, and 

 he whose name appeared, gained the cause. 



Criminal offences of magnitude, were tried at the seat of government, 

 and accusations might be proved or rebutted by ordeal. The usual punish- 

 ments for almost every degree of crime were fines or confiscations, and 

 even murder was rarely, visited with death, the convict, if a Rajput, being 

 heavily mulcted, and if a Brahmin, banished. Ti'eason was, however, gene- 

 rally punished capitally. 



Grevious offences against the Hindu religion, and system, such as the 

 wilful destruction of a cow, or the infringement of the distinction of caste by 

 a Dom, such as knowingly making use of a huMca, or any other utensil be- 

 longing to a Rajput or Brahmin, were also capital. The mode of inflicting 

 capital punishment was either by hanging or beheading ; the Gorkhas 

 introduced impaling, and sometimes put convicts to death with the most cruel 

 tortures. Under the Raja's government, executions were very rare, and con- 

 fined almost wholly to prisoners of the Dom caste j during the last government, 

 they became far more numerous and indiscriminate. In petty thefts, restitu- 

 tion and fine were commonly the only penalties inflicted ; in those of magni- 

 tude, the offender was sometimes subjected to the loss of a hand or of his nose. 

 Crimes of the latter description have ever, in these hills, been extremely rare, 

 and did not call for any severe enactments. Acts of omission or commission, 

 involving temporary deprivation of caste, as also cases of criminal inter- 

 course between parties connected within the degrees of affinity prescribed by 

 the Hindu law, offered legitimate objects of fine. Adultery, among the 

 lower classes, was punished in the same manner. Where, however, the hus- 

 band was of rank or caste, the adulterer was commonly put to death, and 



