CHAPTER II.
PRIMITIVE MODES OF ADMINISTERING JUSTICE.
Trial by Ordeal .-- Boys settle some matters about which they cannot agree by "tossing up a penny," or by "drawing cuts." In a game of ball they determine "first innings" by "tossing the bat." Differences in a game of marbles, they settle by guessing "odd or even," or by "trying it over to prove it." In all these modes of adjustment there is an appeal to _chance._ Probably behind these practices is the feeling that the boy who ought to win will somehow guess right.

This appealing to chance to settle questions of fact is characteristic of society in its primitive state.
Modes of establishing justice similar in principle to these boy practices prevail to this day among superstitious peoples.

They have prevailed even in Europe, not only among people of low mental power, but also among the cultured Greeks.

Among our own Saxon ancestors the following modes of trial are known to have been used: A person accused of crime was required to walk blindfolded and barefoot over a piece of ground on which hot ploughshares lay at unequal distances, or to plunge his arm into hot water.

If in either case he escaped unhurt he was declared innocent.