Note 34 — Chapter V · THE BLACK ART.
Reading edition
“The most humane method employed was rubbing the eyes with a well-dried capsicum; and certainly if they could furnish the demonstration of their innocence by withholding tears, they might justly be deemed witches.”34 Akin to these tests is the folk-tale ordeal by which the calumniated heroine bathes in boiling oil to prove her chastity.35