Trial by ordeal

ancient judicial practice to determine guilt through an unpleasant experience

French monk

trial by ordeal administered to the wife whose husband suspected her of adultery but who had no witnesses to make a formal case

thumb|right|250px|alt=in an ominous and dark tropical forest, a person lays on the ground, surrounded by men with spears, as a crowd looks on|A 19th-century artist's depiction of the tangena ordeal being undergone in a Madagascan forest Glade (geography)|glade (the victim is lying at the feet of group under right-hand trunk of immense tree) thumb|Cerbera manghas (known formerly as Cerbera tanghin), showing plum-like fruit, halved to reveal toxic seed - as depicted in a coloured plate from Köhler's Medizinal Pflanzen The tangena ordeal was a form of trial by ordeal practiced in Madagascar to d