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THE COURTS Then the penyarikan tears the palm-leaf in which the text of the oath is written and puts the ribbons of it into a jug of holy water. The rnan drinks the water and makes a reverence with a flower while lie is sprinkled with the remaining water, after which the pot is dashed to the ground and broken. He and his descendants have good reason to be frightened at the swearing of the oath; Krause gives us the following version of it: ". . . Perjurers and their accomplices shall be confounded by every evil and be struck by lightning. When they go into the forest they shall become entangled in the creepers, losing their way, running here and there without finding the right road. Tigers shall attack them. They shall dash against the rocks, their skulls split open, and their brains spill out. On the crossroad they shall be crushed by falling trees. In the fields they shall be struck by lightning from a clear sky, be bitten by poisonous serpents, and torn to bits by the horns of buffaloes. They shall fall into deep rivers where pointed stones will cut their chests open, their bones will be dislocated, and the blood flow from their veins. Their corpses shall sink to the bottom of the waters. When
they are at sea they shall be attacked by crocodiles. The SumdangAal
and the Peh fish shall bite them and the poisonous sea-serpent Lempe
strike them, and sea-monsters swallow them. In their houses they shall
be the prey of all sorts of sickness and they shall die unnatural deaths.
No one shall help them, and during their sleep they shall die while
dreaming, they shall die standing up, they shall die while eating or
drinking. Neither they, nor their children, their grandchildren, nor
their great-grandchildren, shall again be men on this earth. They shall
reincarnate as maggots, clams, worms, and serpents. Such is the curse
upon perjury as is ordained by Ari Tjandana and Angasti, and the Eminent
Gods of the East, North, South, West, and Centre. . . . They, their
children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren shall know no further
happiness from now on."
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