ABSTRACT
The dead person was washed, and the water was collected as it ran off the corpse. A relative took a sip of this water to demonstrate that no poison had been mixed with it; then the accused person swallowed a mouthful. The gods, thereupon, decided the issue. If the man should outlive the stipulated period (generally twelve months) and, as far as one can see, there was no special reason why he should die other than by sheer auto-suggestion, then he would, at a specified time, appear in the market-place and declare in public that the gods had proved his innocence.
