HINDI' LAW IN 



ordeal, generally that of boiling oil, into which the bare arm 

 was plunged. Father Bouchet states that he had seen this 

 ordeal undergone in numerous instances without consequent 

 bodily injury. Another mode of discovering the truth was by 

 making the prisoner take a ring out of a narrow-necked 

 earthen pot containing a cobra. Before the ordeal began, 

 opportunity was given to the wrong-doer of putting back 

 unseen what he had improperly taken. With regard to these 

 ordeals it is to be observed that they are of the kind usually 

 called private, as opposed to the public, which required the 

 performance of ceremonies by Brahmans, e.g., the ordeals by 

 fire, water, weighing, &c. 



The crime of murder was very inadequately punished by 

 a fine of 100 pagodas, or even of 100 crowns ; and this, too, 

 in cases where the victim was an officer of the Government. 

 Fortunately this crime was of rare occurrence : and the 

 frequency of its commission apparently had not been affected 

 by the circumstance of Queen Mangammal abolishing capital 

 punishment, as for murder. The law permitted a husband 

 to kill his wife and her paramour together when found in 

 flagran te delicto ; but not to kill one at one time and place, 

 and the other at another. 



A very remarkable practice is thus referred to : " S'il 

 s'agit d'un meurtre, et que la Loy du Talion ait lieu dans 

 la Caste, cette loy s'observe dans toute la rigueur." The 

 practice is stated to have been usual only amongst the robber 

 clans that lived between the JJtlarava country and Madura, by 

 which the writer must have meant the Maravar or Kallar. 

 The nature of the ' 6 Loy du Talion " is not explained by 

 the writer. But a letter in Recueil X, Lettres cur. et ed., 

 written by Father Martin in 1709, describes a practice pre- 

 vailing amongst the Maravar, of one who considered himself 

 aggrieved, killing or maiming himself (or his wife or child) 

 in order that his enemy might be compelled to do the sam^ 



