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Each party would then pray to the temple god affirming the truth of his statements in the dispute and inviting the god to do the supplicant an injury if he were not in fact telling the truth. Each party in turn would then attempt to strike off the head of a live cock (colour unimportant) with a single stroke of a chopper. If the head were severed cleanly, the party thereby proved his case. An incomplete severance would show the hollowness of the party's statements, probably because guilty knowledge caused his hand to shake.
(b) In practice, it was seldom that both parties were required to chop off the cock's head. Usually the guilty party would feel himself unable to invite the god's wrath in the preliminary worshipping and would back out. This implied a perhaps greater belief in the omnipotence of the gods than is apparent nowadays when the modern age and Christianity have taken some of the edge off ancient traditions.
(c) The custom is now quite rare, although a case occurred in Tai Po in 1948, under the auspices of the then District Officer.
14. Money Loan Associations
(a) Debt disputes frequently arise as a result of money loan associations. Without a clear idea of their workings, it is impossible to understand the inevitable ramifications of each case.
(b) Such associations are normally formed by groups of persons in close daily contact with each other so as to create mutual trust and confidence. Examples are employees or clerks of a shop or even Government servants in the same office. The object of the association is to pool the financial resources of the members, with the gambling prospect of each member at some stage being able to use these resources for his own benefit. Each member will eventually get back roughly the same amount of money as he put into the association.
(c) There are of course variations but generally the procedure is for a number of persons to club together for a set period which corresponds to the number of persons (e.g., 10 persons for 10 months). The period can begin at any time and