Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Longest Oath Known to Legal History,
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_04_12-2009_04_18.shtml#1239827443
or at least to me, uncovered by [1]Marc Abrahams of the Annals of
Improbable Research in Kenneth R.H. MacKenzie's [2]Burmah and the
Burmese (1853) ([3]short video here). It apparently began (paragraph
breaks added):
f I speak not the truth, may it be through the influence of the
laws of demerit, viz.: passion, anger, folly, pride, false opinion,
hardheartedness, and scepticism; so that when I and my relations
are on land, land animals, as tigers, elephants, buffaloes,
poisonous serpents, scorpions, &c., shall seize, crush, and bite
us, so that we shall certainly die.
Let calamities occasioned by fire, water, rulers, thieves and
enemies, oppress and destroy us, till we come to utter destruction.
Let me be subject to all the calamities that are within the body,
and all that are without the body. May we be seized with madness,
dumbness, blindness, leprosy and hydrophobia. May we be struck with
thunderbolts, and lightning, and come to sudden death.
In the midst of not speaking truth, may I be taken with vomiting
black clotted blood, and suddenly die before the assembled people.
When I am going by water, may the water Nats assault me, the boat
be upset, and the property lost; and may alligators, porpoises,
sharks, or other sea monsters, seize and crush me to death; and
when I change worlds, may I not arrive among men or Nats, but
suffer unmixed punishment and regret in the utmost wretchedness
among the four states of punishment, Hell, Prita, Beasts and
Athurakai.
There's [4]more.
References
1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/31/improbable-research
2.
http://books.google.com/books?id=F28BAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22burmah+and+the+burmese%22
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LMQAmR_2P4
4.
http://books.google.com/books?dq=%22burmah+and+the+burmese%22&pg=PR9&id=F28BAAAAQAAJ#PPA24,M1
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