232 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
the questions of his examiners without hesitation, 
although his voice was unsteady with emotion ; and 
there was an impetuosity of manner, mingled with 
occasional glances of hatred, contempt, and revenge, 
cast at the man who stood beside the female, which 
proved that his disquietude was not entirely on his 
own account. I enquired of the by-standers the 
meaning of the scene, and was informed that the 
Brahmins formed a panchaiut, or council of five, for 
the trial of the female, who, it appears, had excited the 
jealousy of her husband, the forbidding person who 
stood beside her. The youth was he who shared her 
suspicions, and the guilt of the parties having been 
pretty clearly established in the opinion of the Brah- 
mins, he was now giving evidence of the inhuman 
conduct of the husband towards his wife. As he pro- 
ceeded in his story, he recounted various acts of bar- 
barity on the part of the man, which moved the listeners 
to indignation and verbal abuse; to which however 
the husband only replied with looks of hardy defiance. 
When the lad had finished his statement, he called 
witnesses, who proved his assertions, and he then took 
a most solemn oath of his and the woman’s innocence, 
and he was immediately put to the test of ordeal ; 
which consisted simply in requiring him to eat a 
handful of dry barley ; he performed his task much to 
the satisfaction of his j udges, and this was sufficient to 
acquit him from any sort of punishment. 
The woman was then called upon to undergo the 
