ABSTRACT
IT is a very familiar and common thing among the peoples of the North that, when the notion arises that someone has committed a crime of some seriousness, the person under suspicion or accused should defend himself with an oath sworn by himself and by someone else. Let us imagine that someone is accused of entering into league with his country's enemies to commit robbery, manslaughter, arson, or abduction, or of having practised witchcraft, soothsaying, and sacrilege, or of having cheated his lord, and so forth.
