TRIAL BY ORDEAL IN AFRICA.
IN an African village the work is done chiefly by the women; they hoe the fields, sow the seed, and reap the harvest. To them, too, falls all the labor of house building, grinding corn, bringing beer, cooking, washing, and caring for almost all the material interests of the community. The men tend the cattle, hunt, go to war, and, curiously enough, do all the sewing required on their own and the women's garments. Neater tailors than Africans it would be impossible to find anywhere. By means of awl and tendons from the animals of the chase, they can sew small squares of skin together so as almost to defy an expert to find a seam without looking at the reverse side; nor are they mean artists as regards art and fit according to American notions. Of all Central African customs, trial by ordeal, which is universal, is the most revolting to a European, brought for the first time into contact with savage life. When a man is accused of any crime—as theft, arson, murder, witchcraft, or the like, evidence is brought against him in the way common throughout the whole continent. This, however, is never final. The accuser's witnesses swear to anything required of them without the slightest compunctions, and as the prosecutor must produce his evidence first, the defendant's witnesses are ready to swear, and do swear, the opposite of all that has been said. Trial is invariably in open court, and nothing said by the witnesses for the prosecution can be concealed from those that are to follow. There are no affidavits, thus making contradiction at once simple and safe. If rebutting evidence were allowed, the most paltry trial would be interminable. For a witness to be called a liar is, in such a case, a compliment. It proves that his evidence told, and that he, by inference, is a very clever fellow. If the same man was accused of bewitching, he would regard it as a foul libel, and demand the poison bowl without an hour's delay. To remedy the defects of trial in court, that by ordeal is adopted in all kinds of cases, both civil and criminal. As the case proceeds before the council, the accused at intervals demands the muvai, and this demand his friends, if they believe him innocent, persistently press. The accuser resists the demand as unnecessary, knowing that should the culprit, even if caught red handed, recover, he will be placed in a difficult position. He will in that case have no claim to compensation for an injury, and may in turn be successfully sued for willfully seeking to destroy another man's reputation. The belief in the absolute certainty of trial by muvai is universal, and the beginning and end of reasoning is this: "If he is guilty, he dies; if he does not die, should the stolen property be found on his person, he is not guilty; another put it there, or he is bewitched."—Journal of the Anthropological Institute.