ORDEAL. 
23,9 
111 any of the Anglo Saxon laws ; and it does not appear to have been 
much used in England till after the Conquest. There are, however, 
two remarkable instances of it recorded in Dr. Henry’s History of 
Great Britain, to which we shall refer the inquisitive reader. We 
need scarcely add, that this detestable, form of trial was the founda- 
tion of the no less detestable crime of duelling, which still disgraces our 
age and nation.—It was so much the custom in the middle ages of 
Christianity, to respect the cross even to superstition, that it would 
have been indeed wonderful if the same ignorant bigotry had not con- 
verted it into an ordeal ; accordingly, we find it used for this purpose 
in so many different ways as almost to preclude description. Dr. 
Henry gives the following account of it. In criminal trials the judg- 
ment of the cross was'thus conducted. When the prisoner had declared 
his innocence upon oath, and appealed to the judgment or the cross, 
two sticks were prepared, exactly like one another: the figure of 
the cross was cut on one of these sticks, and nothing on the other ; 
each of them was then wrapped up in a quantity of fine white wool, 
and laid on the altar, or on the relics of the saints ; after which a 
solemn prayer was put up to God, that he would be pleased to dis- 
cover, by evident signs, whether the prisoner was innocent or guilty. 
These solemnities being finished-, a priest approached the altar, and 
took up one of these sticks, w'hich was uncovered with much anxiety . 
If it was the stick marked with the cross, the prisoner was pronounced 
innocent ; if it was the other, he was declared guilty. When the 
judgment of the cross was appealed to in civil causes, the trial was 
conducted in this manner. The judges, parties, and all concerned, 
being assembled in a church, each of the parties chose a priest, the 
youngest and stoutest that he could find, to be bis representative in 
the trial. These representatives were then placed one on each side 
of some famous crucifix ; and at a signal given they both at once 
stretched their arms at full length, so as to form a cross w ith their 
body. In this painful posture they continued to stand while divine 
service was performing; and the party whose representatives dropped 
his arms first, lost his cause. These and the like relics of super- 
tition and barbarism were abolished in England, as had been done in 
Denmark above a century before, by act of parliament, 3 Hen. III. 
according to Sir Edward Coke, or rather by an order of the king in 
council. 
Ordeal seems to have been carried to a greater height among the 
Hindoos than ever it has been in any nation or among any people, 
however rude or barbarous ; for in a paper of the Asiatic Researches, 
communicated by the celebrated Warren Hastings, Esq., we find that 
the trial by ordeal among them is conducted in nine different ways: 
viz. 1. by the balance; 2. by fire ; 3. by hot oil ; 4. by images; 
5. by poison ; 6. by red-hot iron ; 7. by rice ; 8. by the Cosha; 9. 
by water. — ^^Ordeal by balance is thus performed: The beam having 
been previously adjusted, the cord fixed, and both scales made per- 
fectly even, the person accused, and a Pandit, fast a whole day ; then, 
after the accused has been bathed in sacred water, the homa or 
oblation presented to fire, and the deities worshipped, he is carefully 
weighed ; and, when he is taken out of the scale, the Pandits pros- 
