(Vol. vii., p. 458.)
Will you permit me to make a few observations in reply to the Queries of
MR. H. H. BREEN on this subject?
There is hardly any custom more ancient than for a person imposing a
promise on another to call on him to bind himself by an oath to the due
performance of it. In this oath the person swearing calls on God, the king,
his father, or some person or thing to whom he attaches authority or value,
to inflict on him punishment or loss in case he breaks his oath. The mode
of swearing is, in one particular, almost everywhere and in every age the
same.
When a father, a friend, a sword, or any corporeal object is sworn by, _the
swearer places his hand upon it_, and then swears. When a man, however,
swore by the Deity, on whom he cannot place his hand, he raised his hand to
heaven towards the God by whom he swore.
When Abraham made Abimelech swear to obey him, he caused him to place his
hand under his thigh, and then imposed the oath; and when Jacob, by his
authority as a father, compelled his son Joseph to swear to perform his
promise, he ordered him to go through a similar ceremony. (Genesis, ch.
xxiv. v. 5., and ch. xlvii. v. 29.)