SUMATRA. 
where three people were profecuted for a theft. There was no pofitive 
proof againil them, yet the circumftances were fo ftrong^ that k appeared 
proper to put them to the teft of one of thefe collateral oaths. They 
were ail willing, and two of them fwore. When it came to the turn of 
the third, he could not perfuade his relations to join with him, and he 
was accordingly brought in for the whole amount of the goods ftoleiit 
aind penalties annexed. 
Thcfc wuA^uw bear a ftrong resemblance to the rules of proof eftu- 
blLflied among our anceftors the Anglo Saxons, who were likewife obli- 
gedj in the cafe of oaths taken for the purpofe of exculpation, to pro- 
duce a certain number of compurgators; hut as thcfe might beany 
indifferent |>erfons, who would take upon them to bear teftimony to the 
truth of what their neighbour fwore, from an opinion of his veracity,, 
there feems to be more refinement, and more knowledge of human na- 
ture in the Sumatran pra<£tke* The idea of devoting to deilrudion, by 
a. wilful perjury^ not himfelf only, but all, even the remoteft bran- 
ches of a family which conftitutes his greateft pride, and of whicli the 
deceafed h^sad* regni^<»d with the veneration that was paid to the ^/w 
iares of tht ancients, has doubtlefs retrained many a man trom taking 
a falfe oath, who, without much eompund:ion, would fuffcr thirty or an 
hundred compurgators of the former defcription, ro rake their chance 
of that fate. Their ftmtigeft prejudices are here converted to the molt 
beneficial purpofes. 
The place of greateft folemnity for adminiftering an oath, is the ceremony of 
crdnmal or bury ing ground of their anceftor^ ; and feveral fuperftitious wkmganoaib. 
ceremonies are obferved on the occafii>n. The jKople near the fea coaft 
in general, by long intcrcourfe with the Malays, have an idea of the 
Karaan, and ufually employ this in fwearing, which the pricfts do not 
fail to make them pay for j but the inland pt^ple keep,, laid yp in their 
houies, certain old reliques, called in Rejang, pjakkc^ and in Paifum* 
mah, fdS^ean, which they produce when an oath is to be taken. The 
perfon who has loft his caufe, and with whom it commonly lies to bind 
F f f his 
