28 t HIAME3K ORDFAI.S. 



ri\iM!.. to truth a var\rng value by an increased or 

 diminished intensity of the nath. But the Siamese 

 are still at the very threshold of jurisprudence ; for 

 where Witnesses are not procurable — and even bo 

 other occasions — they resort to expurgation or proof 

 by various ordeals, such as walking bare-finited 

 ttvef fire, putting the hand into melted lead, or boil- 

 ing oil, diving under \v:*ter Cur a given time ; or if 

 iherc he an accuser, and accused, until one party comes 

 up—the other being adjudged innocent should he 

 escape the alligators or drowning. Drugs are also 

 administered to the parties. Imagination may here 

 occasionally do much. 



A case of ordeal by diving took place very lately 

 at the Siamese port of Kotah, close to die British 

 boundary pillar in Province Wellesley, "here one 

 of the parlies was nil hut drowned. 



The witness declares, as if in the presence of the 

 divine Phra PhooUhcc-rop[a designation of Booddim,] 

 that be is wholly unprejudiced against either party 

 and uninfluenced by any consideration, whether pe- 

 cuniary or otherwise; and be continues: " if what I have 

 spoken ftbaH prove to be false; or if, by colouring 

 the truth, others shall be led astray; then may the 

 three holy existences, viz. Buddha, and DJiamma— 

 [Dhurma, or the sacred Bali writ, personified.] and 

 Phra Saugha— [or the hierarchy]— in whose sight 

 J now stand, together with the glorious dev'atas of the 

 twenty-two firmaments, punish me. If i have not 

 seen, yet shall say that I have seen; if I shall aver 

 a knowledge of that of which I am ignorant \ then, 

 should innumerable incarnations or descents of the 

 the divine essence happen for the regeneration and 

 salvation of mankind, may my erring and migrating 

 soul be found \\\v beyond the pale of their mercy;— 

 wherever I go, may I be encompassed with danger* 



