These teachings, however, are too refined and sublimated for ordinary human nature, and along-side of official Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism flourish with a wealth of legends and marvels that may fairly rival the most exuberant fancies of Teutonic or Latin mediævalism. In the popular mind, therefore, the divine interposition may perpetually be expected to vindicate innocence and to punish crime, and moral teaching to a great extent consists of histories illustrating this belief in all its phases and in every possible contingency of common-place life. Thus it is related that in A. D. 1626 the learned Doctor Wang-i had two servants, one stupid and the other cunning. The latter stole from his master a sum of money, and caused the blame to fall upon his comrade, who was unable to justify himself. By way of securing him, he was tied to a flagstaff, and his accuser was set to watch him through the night. At midnight the flagstaff broke in twain with a loud noise, the upper portion falling upon the guilty man and killing him, while the innocent was left unhurt; and next morning, when the effects of the dead man were examined, the stolen money was found among them, thus completely establishing the innocence of his intended victim.[823] Popular beliefs such as these naturally find their expression in irregular judicial proceedings, in spite of the strict materialism of the written law, and, at least in some parts of China, a curious form of the ordeal of chance is employed in default of testimony. If an injured husband surprises his wife _flagrante delicto_ he is at liberty to slay the adulterous pair on the spot; but he must then cut off their heads and carry them to the nearest magistrate, before whom it is incumbent on him to prove his innocence and demonstrate the truth of his story. As external evidence is not often to be had in such cases, the usual mode of trial is to place the heads in a large tub of water, which is violently stirred. The heads, in revolving, naturally come together in the centre, when, if they meet back to back, the victims are pronounced guiltless, and the husband is punished as a murderer; but if they meet face to face, the truth of his statement is accepted as demonstrated, he is gently bastinadoed to teach him that wives should be more closely watched, and is presented with a small sum of money wherewith to purchase another spouse.[824] The cognate civilization of Japan yields even more readily to the temptation of seeking from the Deity a solution of doubt. Anciently there were in general use the judgments of God, so well known in mediæval Europe, of the wager of battle and the ordeal of boiling water, and the latter is still customarily employed among the Ainos, or aborigines. Even yet two antagonists may be seen to plunge their hands in scalding water, the one who suffers the most being convicted, while the innocent is expected to escape with injuries so slight that they will readily heal.[825]