"The kiss seems rather an act of reverence to the contents of the book, as, in the Popish ritual, the priest kisses the gospel before he reads it, than any part of the oath." The Query respecting the Welsh custom I must leave to those who are better informed respecting the judicial forms of that country; merely suggesting whether the practice alluded to by your correspondent may not originally have had a meaning similar to that of the three fingers on the book, and two under, as described by Fox in the passage above quoted. ERICA. Warwick. In the bailiwick of Guernsey the person sworn lifts his right hand, and the presiding judge, who administers the oath, says "Vous jurez par la foi et le serment que vous devez a Dieu que," &c. Oaths of office, however, are taken on the Gospels, and are read to the person swearing by the greffier, or clerk of the court. The reason of this difference may be accounted for by the fact that the official oaths, as they now exist, appear to have been drawn up about the beginning of the reign of James I., and that in all probability the form was enjoined by the superior authority of the Privy Council. Which of the two forms was generally used before the Reformation, I have not been able to discover; but in an account of the laws, privileges, and customs of the island, taken by way of inquisition in the year 1331, but more fully completed and approved in the year 1441, it appears that the juries of the several parishes were sworn "sur Sainctes Evangiles de Dieu par eulx et par chacun d'eulx corporellement touche,"--"par leurs consciences sur le peril de la dampnation de leurs ames." I remember to have seen men from some of the Baltic ports, when told to lift their right hands to be sworn, double down the ring finger and the little finger, as is done by bishops in the Roman Catholic Church when giving the benediction. In France the person making oath lifts his right hand. The oath is administered by the presiding judge without any reference to the Deity, but the person who swears is required to answer "Je le jure." I observed that in Britanny, when the person sworn was ignorant of the French language, the answer was "Va Doue," which, I believe, means in the Breton dialect, "By God." In the Ecclesiastical Court of Guernsey I have seen the book presented to the person swearing open at one of the Gospels; but in the Royal Court the book is put into the right hand of the party making oath, shut. In either case it is required that the book should be kissed. HONORE DE MAREVILLE. Guernsey. * * * * * COMMINATORY INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS. (Vol. viii., pp. 64. 153.) Many inscriptions, comminatory or exhortatory, written in books and directed to readers, have been commemorated in "N. & Q." Towards the beginning of the present century, the most common epigram of the kind in the French public schools was the following elegant motto, with its accompanying illustration: