The primary idea of taking an oath is that we call upon the
Deity to bear witness to the sincerity or truth of what we
assert, and so, as it were, register our oath in heaven.
When Abraham, for example, raised his hands to heaven while
swearing an oath to the King of Sodom, he pointed to the
supposed residence of the Creator. Afterward, when men set up
inferior deities of their own, they appealed to the material
images of symbols that represented them, whenever an oath
was administered. The most usual form of swearing among the
ancients was, however, by touching the altar of the gods. Other
rites, such as libations, the burning of incense and sacrifices
accompanied the touching of the altar. Demosthenes swore by the
souls of those who fell at Marathon. Anciently, too, mariners
swore by their ships, fishermen by their nets, soldiers by their
spears, and kings by their scepters. The ancient Persians swore
by the sun, which was the common object of their adoration,
while the Scythians pledged themselves by the air they breathed
and by their simitars. Descending to more modern times, the
Saxons pledged themselves to support their homes and privileges
by their arms; and the punishment for perjury or non-fulfilment
of an oath was the loss of the hand that had held the weapon at
the compact. The Spartans were wont to assemble around a brazier
of fire, and, pointing their short swords to the sky, call upon
the gods to bear witness to the compact. Swearing by the sword,
in fact, retained its significance down to comparatively modern
times, tho in a slightly modified form. Thus, while the pagans
extended the point of the weapon toward the supposed residence
of the gods, the warriors of Christianity after kissing it,
directed the hilt--the true emblem of their faith--to heaven.
A later form of oath was the pressing of the thumb upon the
blade. Gradually, however, the practise became obsolete; and
the kissing of the hilt, accompanying the words, “By this good
sword!” was handed down almost to the time when the wearing of a
sword by gentlemen was abolished, as one of the strictest codes
of civil honor.--London _Standard_.
(2212)