Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 762

722
ORDEAL BY POISON
Some one
is then told to go a certain distance and to
During the time so occupied the accused must
immerse himself completely, holding on to the bottom of
the stake fixed close to him. If he raises his head above
the water before the person returns, he is accounted guilty
if he comes up afterwards, he is declared innocent.
If both accuser and accused are condemned to undergo
the ordeal, they must both go under the water at the same
time, and he who first comes to the surface to breathe is
return.
;
considered guilty.
The ordeal by poison is preceded by all the usual cere-
monies.
A little powdered arsenic is mixed in some melted
butter.
The purohita then says
Poison, you are a harmful substance, created to destroy
the guilty and impure. You were vomited by the great
snake Vasuki to cause the death of guilty giants. Behold
a person who is accused of a crime of which he declares
himself to be innocent. If in reality he is not guilty,
:
'
divest yourself of your injurious qualities
him as amrita (nectar).'
and become to
The accused then swallows the poison and if, though
he may feel unwell, he survives for three days, he is pro-
claimed innocent.
There are also several other kinds of trial by ordeal.
;
Amongst the number is that of boiling oil, which is mixed
with cow-dung, and into which the accused must plunge
his arm up to the elbow
that of the snake, which consists
in shutting up some very poisonous snake in a basket, in
which has been placed a ring or a piece of money which the
accused must find and bring out with his eyes bandaged
if, in the former case, he is not scalded, and in the latter
;
;
is
not bitten, his innocence
is
completely proved.