:9 



■are surrounded with much interesting and extravagant 

 -tradition of a purely oriental type, and this probably 



•.•constitutes the chief reason why the annual pilgrimage to 

 his chief temple is so largely attended by people of various 

 nations and creeds, 



A shrine in honour of the deity is to be seen in the 

 -branch dewale or temple at Kandy, and a civil claim was 

 recently decided there between two chetties in the follow- 

 ing manner. The plaintiff sued the defendant for £5 15s od. 



! for board and lodging. By mutual agreement they repaired 

 to the temple where the defendant lighted a candle, and 



.holding it before the shrine declared that he did not owe 



•the money. He then extinguished the light, and the 

 •plaintiff with apparent cheerfulness subsequently with* 



.drew his claim and paid the costs, of his adversary. 



There is, however, a case mentioned by Sir Charles 



"•Marshall (Judgments p. 142) in which a similar ordeal at 



/Jaffna does not seem to have been attended with infallible 

 result. He says : " & Judge of one of the northern districts 



\ li suggested to the Supreme Court the expediency of 

 sending the Malabar witnesses to a temple, to be sworn ; 

 in the hope that the more imposing nature of the 



il< ceremony/ being one to which the Malabars sometimes 



J( have recourse among themselves, might be more 

 f ' efficacious in obtaining the truth. After a full consider- 

 M ation of the question, however, by all three Judges, rtfiey 

 £ directed the District Judge to be informed that -they 

 should not feel justified in sanctioning ,the,cQki m W&> 



W posed-,=»-that though they were fully aware of the diffi- 

 u culty of arriving at the truth, and ;the>ugh they agreed 



M that this object might sometimes be attained by the 



