Ordeal of Poison
Some cultures, such as the Efik Uburutu people of present-day Nigeria, would administer the poisonous calabar bean (known as "esere" in Efik) in an attempt to detect guilt. A defendant who vomits up the bean is innocent. A defendant who becomes ill or dies is considered guilty.
Residents of Madagascar could accuse one another of various crimes, including theft, Christianity and especially witchcraft, for which the ordeal of tangena was routinely obligatory. In the 1820s, ingestion of the poisonous nut caused about 1,000 deaths annually. This average rose to around 3,000 annual deaths between 1828 and 1861.
Read more about this topic: Trial By Ordeal
Famous quotes containing the words ordeal and/or poison:
“They who aspire to love worthily, subject themselves to an ordeal more rigid than any other.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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