if 



u ' r it is laid %ipoiv the floor, the covers taken off, and the 

 4< volume displayed. The officiating Brahmin repeats the 

 n nature of the obligation/ and pours a little water into 

 " the hand of the person who swears, which he shakes 

 " and sprinkles on his head : then, bowing down, he 

 " touches the book with his hands, repeating the prescribe 

 44 ed words, and rising up, the ceremony is finished/' 



Two ancient forms of ordeal remain to be mentioned 

 which we frequently find alluded to in old Kandyan deeds. 

 They seem now to have quite gone otit of use ; the one was 1 

 the ordeal of thrusting the hand into boiling oil and cow 1 

 dung, the particular merit or significance of which it is 

 hard to see. It was specially resorted to in cases of dis- 

 puted title to land. The other was the ordeal of putting 

 the hand into a chatty, wherein a live cobra had been 

 placed. This is thoroughly intelligible. It was a 

 form of ordeal which no doubt commanded genuine 

 belief, not only on account of the risk of personal injury 

 involved in the process, but also by reason of the belief 

 which invested this snake with infallible and sacred attri- 

 butes.- 



