104 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
who is judged guilty as a result of trial by ordeal, which is called among the 
Kpwesis, zalo, and among the Grebos gedu, will as a rule not insist on his inno- 
cence even when actually guiltless, for he often believes that some other misdeed 
has brought the judgment upon him. Denial, it is said, would be useless in any 
case, for public opinion would uphold the verdict of the trial. 
The belief in the influence of the mind over the body in bringing about con- 
fession of guilt, has apparently existed from the beginning of our knowledge of 
the trial by ordeal. One of the earliest references to such a trial is to be found 
in the Bible in Numbers, V, 17, where a description is given of the method of 
administering to a woman charged with unfaithfulness, the bitter water mixed 
with the dust of the tabernacle floor, with a curse laid on it to cause her belly to 
swell and her thigh to rot, if guilty. Whether poison was placed in the “‘bitter”’ 
water is not clear. 
In connection with the persistent and extensive practice in Liberia of this 
method of attempting to detect guilt, it may be of some interest to recall that the 
trial by ordeal lingered even in Europe as a custom having the force of law until 
at least three or four centuries ago. Trial by ordeal is also still employed in some 
parts of the tropical world outside of Africa, especially India, and in Brahmanic 
law, in such trial a decoction of the aconite root is one of the poisons given, the 
accused if not becoming seriously ill is declared innocent. 
