Trial By Touch
In the Jewish tradition, the soul exists in blood, since it is essential to maintaining human life. This belief is why people sometimes did blood oaths to seal a contract. There used to be a tradition during Jewish funerals where people would visit the body, and ask for forgiveness for any arguments they may have had in the past. If the corpse started to have a nosebleed immediately following someone’s request for forgiveness, it meant that the ghost was still holding a grudge.
The trial by touch, also sometimes called “the ordeal of blood” was a method people used to identify a murderer. The idea was used during the reign of Richard the Lionhearted of England, who ruled in the 1100’s. It was even alluded to in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where the blood on Lady Macbeth’s hands will never go away, no matter how much she washes them. The idea was that when someone commits murder, they will never be able to escape the flow of blood from their victim both physically and mentally.
Roughly ten hours after someone dies, blood in the body coagulates, and they will no longer bleed from any cuts or lacerations, but if the body is still fresh, it is very possible that it will continue to bleed. In ancient times, people did not understand the science behind this, or course, and they believed that a soul lingered around a body for a while immediately following their death. If someone was murdered, their ghost would surely want justice.
When a murder suspect was captured, they were brought to the body of the person who had been murdered, and forced to touch it. They believed that if this person was the murderer, the dead person would begin pour out fresh blood from their wound. This was not considered to be a superstition. It was accepted as actual fact that the method works, even from doctors that should have known better. Since the idea was believed in Europe, it spread to the colonies in the United States.
In the 1700’s, a song called “Earl Richard and Young Huntin'” describes the trial by blood in the lyrics. “The maiden touched the clay-cold corpse, a drop it never bled. The lady lay her hand on him, and soon the ground was red.”