I just ran across this mysterious emotion, er, motion -- "craving oyer" -- in a Virginia case. This sentiment seems over 40 years dead in most places, but in the Old Dominion it's still going strong. The Corpus Juris Secundum explains it (citations omitted):

"Oyer," in the old English practice, meant hearing; the hearing a deed read, which a party sued on a bond, etc., might pray or demand, and it was then "read" to him by the other party .... In modern practice, "oyer" means a copy of a bond or specialty sued on, given to the opposite party, in lieu of the old practice of reading it.

Oyer is the counterpart of profert. In the time of oral pleading, "to crave oyer" meant demanding to hear a reading of the instrument of which profert was made; but since the days of written pleading it has meant demanding to have a copy, that the party craving oyer, may, if necessary, spread on the record, to enable him or her to make a defense....

Under statutes, the archaic ceremony of craving oyer is unknown; oyer is superseded by a statute with respect to the production of papers or books for inspection.

Anyone with pictures of a craving oyer ceremony -- or videos of its reënactment -- is encouraged to post them in the comments.