| caption: |
chapter four - the village administration |
| caption: |
oaths as ordeals; methods of oath taking |
| note: |
footnotes indicated by boxes within square brackets |
| text: |
Oaths are very seldom resorted to in the village court, though district officers faced with difficult cases have sometimes had recourse to them. Among the Central Nzemi an oath is not a simple affirmation of the truth of evidence, but is a dangerous ordeal. The swearer pledges his own life and the lives of his kin on the truth of his statement and it is implicitly believed that perjury is invariably followed by the death of the perjurer himself or by that of one or more of his close relatives. [7 [Record T86813] |
