263 



temples; that from the close verbal conformity of the Anglo-Saxon 

 beaga (ring), and the Latin baculum (a staff), the two objects might 

 easily be confounded; and that convenience and centuries may have im- 

 perceptibly wrought the change ; both the heathen ring and the Scotch 

 baton may have had moveable swivel rings by which to attach criminals. 

 The Irish ring of Lord Londesborough would then be explainable, 

 partly from the Icelandic rings, and partly from the Scotch enigma- 

 tical symbol," and the combination of both would be mutually corrobo- 

 rative. 



Their use as ministering sanctity to oaths would be,^only one of the 

 purposes to which they might be applied ; but the penannular form and 

 lipped ends fit those of such shape more especially for administering an 

 oath by the priest or Krive. Held in his hand, the party taking the oath 

 would lay a finger from each hand, or his palms, upon the flattened 

 ends, whilst calling^ the Deity to witness the truth of his affirmation. 

 Exposing the palms of the hand was in all ages appropriate in addresses 

 to the Deity : the classics abound in such proofs :• — 



" Tendit duplices ad sidera palmas — 

 Geminas tollit ad astra manus, — 

 Digitis intendit mollibus arcum." 



And from this touching seems to have originated the custom of a corpo- 

 ral oath ; as before the Reformation oaths were taken on the reliques of 

 saints — mper corpora sanctorum, as is witnessed in the relation of Ha- 

 rold's oath to "William of ]^ormandy. Even subsequently, in the raths- 

 strike of the old town of Liineburg, oaths are still administered by the 

 venerable fathers of its senate upon a popish reliquary, the bones having 

 been removed from it. 



It may also be noticed that one of these Irish rings, late in the pos- 

 session of Mr. C. Croker, and figured by him in Smith's Collectanea 

 Antiqua," seems to have flanges broad enough for the full palm to rest 

 on; so in Wilde's Catalogue," Figs. 591, 592, 593. 



Different and distant countries may have varied the manner of 

 administering oaths. What w^e have hitherto seen supposes them 

 given in a set formula by the priest holding the sacred symbol in his 

 own hand for the imposition on it of the palms or fingers of him by 

 whom the oath was taken. This view may be justified by the method 

 of swearing fealty to a suzerain lord, which was by the vassal placing 

 the fist of his lord in his two hands, and so vowing fidelity and homage. 

 The fist of the lord here replaced the heathen ring, as, no doubt, the 

 ancient ceremony is more adapted to Christian practice. Eut in some 

 places the practice may have been to give the symbol into the hands of 

 him who swore, and this method is reduced in our modern courts to de- 

 livering the Testament to be held by the witness. Eings without lips or 

 flanges, and which are only capable of being held by the fingers dou.bled 

 on the palm, may have been used for such variation of the ceremony, as 

 one exists at Copenhagen, dug up in the island of Bornholm, formed 

 merely by doubling both ends of a massive circular bar of the purest 



