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attendant brahmins supplicate the deity; on receiving their bene- 
diction the accused plunges his hand into the boiling fluid, and 
takes out the coin: this I believe is sometimes repeated. The arm 
is then again sealed up, until the time appointed for a re-exami- 
nation: the seal is then broken; if no blemish appears the pri- 
soner is declared innocent; if the contrary, he suffers the punish- 
ment due to his crime. 
In the account of ordeals, by Mr. Hastings, in the Dhertna 
Sastra, or the chapter of oaths, he says “ the word divya, in San- 
scrit, is generally understood to mean an oath, or the trial by ordeal; 
being the form of appealing to the immediate interposition of the 
divine power.” Nine kinds of ordeal are enumerated; but I shall 
here confine myself to what is said on that by oil. — “ The ordeal 
by the vessel of oil, according to the comment on the Dherina 
Sastra, is thus performed ; the ground appointed for the trial is 
cleared, and rubbed with cow-dung; and the next day, at sun-rise, 
the pundit worships Ganesa, presents his oblations, and pays ado- 
ration to other deities, conformable to the Sastra: then, having 
read the incantation prescribed, he places a round pan of gold, 
silver, copper, iron or clay, with a diameter of sixteen fingers, and 
four fingers deep; and throws into it one seer, or eighty sicca weight 
of clarified butter, or oil of sesamum. After this a ring of gold, 
or silver, or iron, is cleaned and washed with water, and cast into 
the oil, which they proceed to heat; when it is very hot they put 
into it a fresh leaf of pippala, or bilwa; when the leaf is burned, 
the oil is known to be sufficiently hot. Then, having pronounced 
a mentra over the oil, they order the party accused to lake the 
ring out of the pan; and if he take it out without being burned, or 
