ORDEALS.[37]

Fire and water are the means employed in India to test guilt in the earlier period.  Then comes the oath with judgment indicated by subsequent misfortune.  All other forms of ordeals are first recognized in late law-books.  We speak first of the ordeals that have been thought to be primitive Aryan.  The Fire-ordeal:  (1) Seven fig-leaves are tied seven times upon the hands after rice has been rubbed upon the palms; and the judge then lays a red-hot ball upon them; the accused, or the judge himself, invoking the god (Fire) to indicate the innocence or the guilt of the accused.  The latter then walks a certain distance, ’slowly through seven circles, each circle sixteen fingers broad, and the space between the circles being of the same extent,’ according to some jurists; but other dimensions, and eight or nine circles are given by other authorities.  If the accused drop the ball he must repeat the test.  The burning of the hands indicates guilt.  The Teutonic laws give a different measurement, and state that the hand is to be sealed for three days (manus sub sigillo triduum tegatur) before inspection.  This sealing for three days is paralleled by modern Indic practice, but not by ancient law.  In Greece there is the simple [Greek:  mudrous airein cheroin] (Ant. 264) to be compared.  The German sealing of the hand is not reported till the ninth century.[38]

(2) Walking on Fire:  There is no ordeal in India to correspond to the Teutonic walking over six, nine, or twelve hot ploughshares.  To lick a hot ploughshare, to sit on or handle hot iron, and to take a short walk over coals is late Indic.  The German practice also according to Schlagintweit “war erst in spaeterer Zeit aufgekommen."[39]

(3) Walking through Fire:  This is a Teutonic ordeal, and (like the conflict-ordeal) an Indic custom not formally legalized.  The accused walks directly into the fire.  So [Greek:  pur dierpein] (loc. cit.).

Water-ordeals:  (1) May better be reckoned to fire-ordeals.  The innocent plunges his hand into boiling water and fetches out a stone (Anglo-Saxon law) or a coin (Indic law) without injury to his hand.  Sometimes (in both practices) the plunge alone is demanded.  The depth to which the hand must be inserted is defined by Hindu jurists.

(2) The Floating-ordeal.  The victim is cast into water.  If he floats he is guilty; if he drowns he is innocent.  According to some Indic authorities an arrow is shot off at the moment the accused is dropped into the water, and a ‘swift runner’ goes after and fetches it back.  “If at his return he find the body of the accused still under water, the latter shall be declared to be innocent."[40] According to Kaegi this ordeal would appear to be unknown in Europe before the ninth century.  In both countries Water (in India, Varuna) is invoked not to keep the body of a guilty man but to reject it (make it float).