ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with what we should, if we were lawyers, call procedural law: the regularities which can be found within the jir. It is also concerned with the activities of the mbatarev or other arbitrating persons, who are said to 'investigate' or 'get to the bottom of' the jir. The part which the mbatarev play in the jir, then, is called 'investigating the jir'. The chapter examines Tiv notions of witnesses (ashieda), oaths and swearing (bum), the testimony of sworn witnesses in a court, and Tiv ideas of truth. 'Truth' in Tivland is an elusive matter because smooth social relationships are deemed of higher cultural value than mere precision of fact. Judgment, dealt with in section v, is part of the broader Tiv idea of 'finishing' (kure) the jir. Judgment is part of the broader Tiv idea of 'finishing' (kure) the jir.
