ver is innocent will immediately eject the deleterious draught, but
the guilty person will die. This, however, is not much to be depended
upon; for while it causes death in one instance, it may do so in all who
partake of it; or on the other hand, from some accident in its
preparation, it may be productive of no effect either upon the guilty or
the innocent.

"The Rice test, although practised in this part of Africa, is, I
believe, not peculiar to it, being also employed in the West Indies, and
South America. Although no doubt originally introduced by a people in a
low state of civilization, it is interesting in so far that it
exemplifies the powerful influence which the mind possesses over the
corporeal functions, and as it appears to have been in use among the
blacks for centuries, we may give them the credit of having been
practically aware that 'conscience doth make cowards of us all,' long
before the Bard of Avon chronicled the fact. In the employment of this
test in Guinea, those who are suspected of having committed a crime are
assembled, and to each a small portion of rice is given, which they are
required to masticate, and afterwards produce on the hand; and it is
invariably the case that while all but the real culprit will produce
their rice in a soft pulpy mass, his will be as dry as if ground in a
mill, the salivary glands having, under the influence exerted upon the
nervous system by fear, refused to perform their ordinary functions."

Something like this is common in many savage countries. In the shape of
the _dhoom_ test, it re-appears in Old Calabar, and, probably,
elsewhere. There, the "king and chief inhabitants ordinarily constitute
a court of justice, in which all country disputes are adjusted, and to
which every prisoner suspected of capital offences is brought, to
undergo examination and judgment. If found guilty, they are usually
forced to swallow a deadly potion made from the poisonous seeds of an
aquatic leguminous plant, which rapidly destroys life. This poison is
obtained by pounding the seeds, and macerating them in water, which
acquires a white milky colour. The condemned person, after swallowing a
certain portion of the liquid, is ordered to walk about, until its
effects become palpable. If, however, after the lapse of a definite
period, the accused should be so fortunate as to throw the poison from
off his stomach, he is considered as innocent, and allowed to depart
unmolested. In native