oth, a solemn agreement, calling upon the name of the deity, to fulfill some promise, to tell the truth in court, or to discharge the duties of an office. The practice of taking an oath has its roots in the remotest antiquity. The jungleman of India places his hand on the skin of a tiger and calls upon the wild beast to devour him if he fails of his word. The modern Hindu passes his word above a basin of water from the sacred Ganges. The African negro swears by his head, his arm, or his leg, calling upon it to wither if he fail to keep his promise. The ancient Carthaginian took oath by the sun, moon, and stars; the Greek, by Zeus; the Roman, by Jupiter. The Shoshone Indian says "The earth hears me, the sun sees me; shall I lie?" The Chinese kill a chicken and swear by its dripping blood. The Siamese Buddhist not only calls down death upon himself, but desires that he may afterward be cast into hell to go through immortal tortures, among them to carry water over the flames in a wicker basket to assuage the thirst of the infernal judge, then that he may migrate into the body of a slave for as many years as there are grains of sand in four seas, and after this that he may be born a beast through five hundred generations. Joseph placed his hand under Jacob's thigh in the land of Goshen and promised to take him home to the burial place of his fathers. Agamemnon uplifted his hands, and took heaven to witness. The Danes took oath on the holy ring or bracelet to quit King Alfred's kingdom. Although Christ said, "Swear not at all," it was the custom of the medieval Christians to take oath on the holy cross. The Scotch witness raises his right hand with, "I swear by God Almighty." The English witness closes his oath by kissing the Book, that is to say, a copy of the Holy Scriptures. Charlemagne took oath in Latin, "Sic me adjuvet, Deus." The German says, "So mir Gott helfe;" the Anglo-Saxon, "So help me, God." The sovereign of Great Britain and Ireland takes oath to obey the laws passed by Parliament and to protect the Protestant religion. The president of the United States takes oath as follows: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." The witness on the stand swears to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Quakers and others having religious scruples against the taking of an oath are permitted to make a solemn statement instead.