- According to the statues of Athelstan, England’s first monarch, his

ordeal consist of removing a stone from boiling water with a hand

inserted as deep as the wrist.
- this kind of ordeal was that if the person was innocent, their hand
5. Boiling would remain unharmed, but if they were guilty, they would be
scalded.
Water Ordeal - based on the belief in divine intervention and superstition.
- unreliable and inhuman
 - The person who agreed to the cold water ordeal, which is a
common manner of witchcraft trial, was thrown into the body of
water.

6. Cold Water - in this ordeal, the accused person was submerged in cold water.
The idea was that the innocent would float while the guilty would
Ordeal sink.
- based on belief that the water, as a neutral element, would reject
the guilty party, causing them to sink. On the other hand, the
innocent, being accepted by the water, would remain afloat.
 - A large portion of eastern Africa employs the “sassy bark” or red
water ordeal. The defendant must fast for twelve hours before
eating a small amount of rice. After that, he is immersed in a dark
7. Ordeal of liquid. The water is actually emetic, and if the culprit ejects all of the
rice, he is presumed innocent. Otherwise, the defendant is
the Red Water convicted.
- explanation is that a fetish of the victim enters the mouth with the
emetic red water, examines the heart of the drinker, and, if it finds
him innocent, brings up the rice in evidence.
Sassy Bark/ Ordeal Tree
 - The aggrieved party may claim the right to fight or to pay a
champion to fight on his behalf.
- the winner of the fight was declared innocent. It was one of the
8. Ordeal by most common methods employed by the judiciary during the
Combat middle ages.
- if still alive after the combat, the loser might be hanged or burned
for a criminal offense or have a hand cut off and property
confiscated in civil actions.