While it is likely that the people of ancient India were familiar with the striæ on the finger tips, there is, however, no evidence whatever that finger impressions were employed to establish the identity of a person. No mention of finger prints is made in the ancient Indian law books. The signature of an individual was a recognized institution of law and a requirement in all contracts. The debtor was obliged to sign his name at the close of the bond, and to add: "I, the son of such and such a one, agree to the above." Then came the witnesses signing their name and that of their father, with the remark: "I, so and so, am witness thereof." The scribe finally added: "The above has been written by me, so and so, the son of so and so, at the request of both parties." An illiterate debtor or witness was allowed to have a substitute write for him. A note of hand written by the debtor himself was also valid without the signatures of witnesses, provided there was no compulsion, fraud, bribery, or enmity connected with the operation. The cleverness of forgers is pointed out, and the necessity of comparison of handwritings and conscientious examination of documents are insisted on.1 Besides the documents pertaining to private law, there were public or royal deeds, among which those relating to foundations, grants of land to subjects as marks of royal favor, took a prominent place. They were written on copper plates or cotton cloth, and the royal seal (mudrā) was attached to them, a necessary act to legalize the document. The forgery of a deed was looked upon as a capital crime, in the same way as in China. The seals represented an animal like a boar or the mythical bird Garuḍa. It is thus shown by the legal practice in ancient India that there was no occasion in it for the use of finger prints, and it appears that the significance of the latter was recognized only in palmistry and magic.2 3 In recent times the finger-print system has been employed in China only in two cases, at the reception of foundlings in the foundling asylums and in the signing of contracts on the part of illiterate people. In regard to the former mode we owe valuable information to F. Hirth, who has made a study of the regulations of Chinese benevolent institutions. The foundling asylums established in all large cities receive orphan children, forsaken babies, or any others sent to them. These are placed by their relatives in a sliding drawer in the wall near the front gate and a bamboo drum is struck to notify the gatekeeper, who opens the drawer from the inside of the wall and 1 Compare J. Jolly, Recht und Sitte, p. 113 (Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie, Strassburg, 1896). Possibly, also the Malayan tribes, as shown by their notions of palmistry, may be acquainted with finger marks. W. W. Skeat (Malay Magic, London, 1900, p. 562) notes that a whorl of circular lines on the fingers is considered as the sign of a craftsman. 3 T'oung Pao, vol. 7, 1896, p. 299. • An interesting account of these is given also by W. Lockhart, The Medical Missionary in China, London, 1861, pp. 23-30, and recently by Yu-Yue Tsu, The Spirit of Chinese Philanthropy (Columbia University, 1912), who refers also to the finger marks (p. 61). transfers the little one to the care of the matron. Every infant is subjected to a method by which its identity is permanently placed on record. Sex and age are entered on a register. If the age can not be made out-it may be inferred, for example, from the style of clothing varying from year to year-the time of the reception into the asylum according to year, month, day, and hour is noted. Then follows a description of bodily qualities, including remarks on the extremities, formation of the skull, crown of the head, birthmarks, and design on the finger tips, for later identification. Emphasis is laid on the latter, for each Chinese mother is familiar with the finger marks of her new born, and as there is a high degree of probability that a baby temporarily placed in the care of the asylum owing to distressed circumstances of the family will be claimed at a later time, this identification system is carefully kept up. The Chinese seem to be acquainted with the essential characteristics of finger marks. What in the technical language of our system is called "arches" and "whorls" is styled by them lo "snail," and our "loops" are designated ki "sieve," "winnowing-basket." The former are popularly looked upon as foreboding of luck. 1 Deeds of sale are sometimes signed with a finger print by the negotiating party. We reproduce (pl. 1) such a document after Th. T. Meadows in preference to any other of recent date because this deed, executed and dated in 1839, furnishes actual evidence of the use of an individual finger impression in China before the system was developed in Europe. The transaction in question is the disposal of a plot of cultivated land for which a sum of 64 taels and 5 mace was paid. The receipt of the full value of this amount is acknowledged by the head of the family selling the land; in this case the mother née Ch'ên whose finger print is headed by the words "Impression of the finger of the mother née Ch'ên." It is evident that Mrs. Ch'ên was unable to write and affixed her finger print in lieu of her name. Sir Francis Galton3 comments on this finger print in the words: "The impression, as it appears in the woodcut, is roundish in outline, and was therefore made by the tip and not the bulb of the finger. Its surface is somewhat mottled, but there is no trace of any ridges." 1 A brief nomenclature pertaining to finger prints may here be given. The numbers in parentheses refer to Giles' Chinese-English Dictionary (2d edition). Lo wên (No. 7291, lit. net-pattern), "the impress of a finger, hand, or foot, dipped in ink and appended as a signature to any kind of deed or other legal instrument." Chi yin (No. 13282, lit. finger-seal), "seal on deeds, etc., made by dipping the finger or hand in ink and pressing it on paper." Hua kung (No. 6752), "to sign one's deposition, usually by dipping the thumb in ink and making an impression of it on the paper." Lien ki tou (No. 13133), "to verify the lines on a man's fingers, in connection with the impression on a deed, etc." Further, chi mo (No. 8066), "fingerpattern" and hua ya (lit. to paint, i. e., to ink and press down) are expressions in the sense of our signature; hua chi (No. 1791), “to make a finger print, as a signature"; chi jên (ibid.), “to identify." 2 Land Tenure in China (Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hongkong, 1848, p. 12). 3 Finger Prints, London, 1892, p. 24. In all contracts of civil law Chinese custom demands the autographic signatures of the contracting parties, the middlemen, and the witnesses. Also the writer of the bond is obliged to sign his name at the end with the title tai pi ("writing for another"). If the seller write the contract out in person, he should sign again at the end, with the addition tse pi ("self-written"). As the number of those able to write is very large, and as even those who have an imperfect or no knowledge of writing are at least able to write their names, it will be seen that there is little occasion for the employment of finger prints in such contracts. Prof. Giles 2 states that title deeds and other legal instruments are still often found to bear, in addition to signatures, the finger prints of the parties concerned; sometimes, indeed, the imprint of the whole hand. This would indicate a survival of the originally magical and ritualistic character of the custom. From the fact that the signature has little or hardly any legal importance, it follows that the forgery of a signature does not fall under the provisions of the Penal Code. The Code of the Manchu dynasty provided only for the forging of imperial edicts and official seals with intent to defraud, and punished these as capital crimes.3 In plates 2 and 3 a Tibetan document written in the running hand is reproduced. It is a promissory note signed by the debtor with the impressions from the balls of both his thumbs. The Tibetans have apparently derived the practice from the neighboring Chinese; there is little probability, at least, that, to speak with Herschel, "a passenger of the Mongolia" may have carried the suggestion to Tibet. The language of the Tibetans proves that this procedure is an old affair with them, for a seal or stamp is called t'e-mo, which is derived from, or identical with, the word t'e-bo, "thumb." Sarat Chandra Das in his Tibetan-English Dictionary justly says that the word t'e-mo originally means the thumb or thumb impression. We may hence infer that the thumb print was the first mode of signature of the Tibetans, in vogue prior to the introduction of metal (brass, iron, or lead) seals which were named for the thumb print, as they were identical with the latter in the principle of utilization. In the related language of the Lepcha, which has preserved a more ancient condition, we find the saxe expression t'e-tsu, "seal," and even t'e c'ung, "small seal," meaning at the same time "little finger." 1 Numerous examples may be seen in P. Hoang, Notions techniques sur la propriété en Chine avec un choix d'actes et de documents officiels, Shanghai, 1897 ( Variétés sinologiques No. 11). 2 Adversaria Sinica, Shanghai, 1908, p. 184. 3 G. Th. Staunton, Ta Tsing Leu Lee, being the Fundamental Laws * * of the Penal Code of China, London, 1810, pp. 392, 396. E. Alabaster, Notes and Commentaries on Chinese Criminal Law, London, 1899, pp. 438, 439. B. H. Chamberlain (Things Japanese, 3d ed., 1898, p. 445) states: "It seems odd, considering the high esteem in which writing is held in Japan, that the signature should not occupy the same important place as in the West. The seal alone has legal force, the impression being made, not with sealing wax, but with vermilion ink." * Mainwaring and Grünwedel, Dictionary of the Lepcha Language, Berlin, 1898, p. 155. |