CHINESE O.VJH8. 



As ;ui instance, however, of unequal justice, it may 

 |*e itKittioueil thai where a woman denied having been 

 legally separated from her husband, and oral or « i if- 

 fe.a proof was ivantmg, the latter could have the se- 

 paration confirmed or decreed by merely swearing 

 in the tmaum's pit' nit in the mosque that it had once 

 taken place. Such was (he advantage which the in- 

 ferior condition in which the female sex existed here, 

 gare to tlie men. 



The Chinese, amount themselves, attest a solemn 

 asseveration by sarritieing a cock. This, Ju fact, is a 

 species of ordeal, since it supersedes further evidence. 

 Tlie person so swearing or rather imprecating', must 

 chop off the cock's head at a single blow, else he is 

 deemed guilty, or his charge adjudged lo I if false. 

 One can imagine an in I ending perjurer, who is cm- 

 bned with superstitious tenQpra, tailing to perform 

 this simple operation, lint in Jhitish Courts of law, 

 the only adjuration practised consi-.!-: i;i tin prrxecii- 

 tor or witness burning a slip of yellow paper which 

 h fwihls the while, in Ijh hand, and on whieh several 

 Chinese characters an stamped, purporting that the 

 person swearing has appeared in the presence of the 

 dispense? of justice — to speak the truth in the nat- 

 ter at issue — and lhat, should he perjure himself ^then 

 even sort of calamity will befall him. By this act of 

 burning, the Chmese conceives thai the printed cha- 

 racters on the paper are conveyed away lo the invisi- 

 ble world as records against the witness, should he 

 fees wear himself. 



The above ceremony of chopping off a cock's head 

 may remind an antupian of i he Jewish cercmoii) *j t" 

 the Capara, which took place on the vigils of the 

 Chipnr . or day of expiation, when awhile cock's 

 bead, bearing the sins of the people, was twisted offl 



* } ufc Asiatic Journal- 



