I Sat Still While You Were Speaking; Can't You Do The Same?
Do You Want To Have It All To Yourself?" And As The Audience Acquiesce
In This Bantering, And Enforce Silence, He Goes On Till He Has Finished
All He Wishes To Say In His Defense.
If he has any witnesses
to the truth of the facts of his defense, they give their evidence.
No
Oath is administered; but occasionally, when a statement is questioned,
a man will say, "By my father," or "By the chief, it is so."
Their truthfulness among each other is quite remarkable;
but their system of government is such that Europeans are not in a position
to realize it readily. A poor man will say, in his defense
against a rich one, "I am astonished to hear a man so great as he
make a false accusation;" as if the offense of falsehood
were felt to be one against the society which the individual referred to
had the greatest interest in upholding.
If the case is one of no importance, the chief decides it at once;
if frivolous, he may give the complainant a scolding,
and put a stop to the case in the middle of the complaint,
or he may allow it to go on without paying any attention to it whatever.
Family quarrels are often treated in this way, and then a man may be seen
stating his case with great fluency, and not a soul listening to him.
But if it is a case between influential men, or brought on by under-chiefs,
then the greatest decorum prevails.
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