SUMATRA. 
fwear hlmlelf: nor are there wanting apparent examples to confirm 
them in this notion. Any accident that happens to a man, who has 
been known to taJte a falfe oath, or to his children or grand child re jt, 
is carefuUy recorded in memory, and attributed to this fole caufe. 
■DupaUy Goonof^g Ceyhng and his family, have afforded an inftance that h 
often quoted among the Rejanga, and has evidently had great weight. 
It was notorious, that he had about the year 1770, taken, in the moft 
fokmn manner, a falfe oath. He had at that time five fons grown iip to 
manhood. One of them, foon after, in a fcuffle with fome huggtuffes 
(country foldieis) was wounded, and died. The Dupatty, the next year, 
loft bis life in the IfTue of a difturbance he had raifed in the diftrid. Two 
of the fons died afterwards, within a week of each other; Mas Caddahj * 
the fourth, is blind; and Treman, the fifth, lame. All this is attributed 
to, and firmly believed to be the confequence of the father's perjury. 
In adminiftering an oath, if the matter litigated refpeds the property of 
the grandfather, all the collateral branches of the family defcended from 
him, are under flood to be included in its operation : if the father's ef- 
fects only are concerri^da or tkc ^^aiiiinfiion happened in his life time, his 
defcendants are included : if the aifair regards only the prefent parties, 
and originated with them, they and their immediate defcendants only, 
are comprehended in the confequences of the oath. Thefe oaths they 
accordingly call ficmpab feping addo naymtf^ or fcping add^ hapa ; and if 
any fmgle one of thefe delcendants refufe to join in the oath, it vitiates 
the whole ; that is, it has the fame efTeCT:, as if the party himfclf refufed 
to fwear : a cafe that not un frequently occurs. It may be obferved that 
the fpirit of this cuftom, tends to the requiring a weight of evidence, and 
an increafc of the importance of the oath, in proportion as the diilance 
of time renders the fa^t to be eftablilhed, Icfs capable of proof in the 
ordinary vvay. 
Sometimes the difficulty of the cafe alone, will induce the court to 
infift on adminiftering the oath to the relations of the parties, although 
they are no ways concerned in the tranfa^^lion. I recoiled an inftancc 
where 
Collatend 
Oaths. 
