84. If any settlement have been mutually come to [between debtor and creditor], a written instrument should be drawn up before witnesses, the first mention being of the creditor.
85. In it should be written the date, viz. year, month, half month, day, also the name, cast, family, the Veda-school, and father's name, of each party, &c.[165]
86. This being completed, the debtor shall subscribe with his signature 87. Then the witnesses, all being equal in grade, shall, after their fathers' names, write, with their own hands respectively: "I, such an one, am a witness." 88. And the writer shall subscribe at the foot, as follows:—"This has been written, at the request of both parties, by me, such an one, the son of such an one." 89. An instrument, entirely in the handwriting of the party, is to be received as proof, although it be not witnessed, unless procured by violence or by fraud.[166] 90. Payment of a debt incurred upon a writing, is obligatory only upon the debtor, his son, and grand-son;[167] but a pledge shall remain in use so long as the debt is unpaid. 91. If the instrument be in a foreign country, be illegibly written, be destroyed, faded, stolen, mutilated, burned, or torn, [the Court] shall direct a new one to be made. 92. The authenticity of a written instrument which is doubtful, is to be ascertained by [comparison with other] documents in the handwriting of the party &c.,[168] by [enquiry into] the probability of its having been obtained,[169] and [the mode of] its preparation, by [observation of] any marks, by [enquiry of] the relation [in which the parties stand to each other], and how the matter came about.