FORTUNE BAY, a bay on the southern coast of Newfoundland, embracing extensive fishing grounds. By the fisheries treaty of 1871 with Great Britain (see FISHERIES QUESTION), the American fishermen were granted equal rights on all British coasts. The Newfound landers were very jealous of this intrusion on their fishing grounds, and in 1878 the Fortune Bay fishers attacked and drove away some Glou cester vessels. Demand was made on Great Britain for damages, and #15,000 was ultimately paid.
predicting the future or fortune of an individual, by means of alleged signs or indications noticed by the fortune-teller. Chiromancy or palmistry is the art of reading the lines or wrinkles on the palm of the hand, as indicative of the future for the person so marked. (See PALMISTRY). Necromancy is the art of consulting the dead about the future. In chartomancy playing cards are supposed by their suit or denomina tion, when turned up after being dealt out, to reveal coming events. The ancient astrologer used to decide from the stars the good or bad fortune of an individual, the hour and day of whose birth was taken as data in calculating the planetary conjunctions on which the horo scope was based. In every great city, even of the modern world, there are numbers of people who make a profession of fortune-telling, and there are many more who are credulous enough to believe in their pretensions. The law does not recognize the power of anyone to foretell the future, and the deluded victim of such charlatans, who had paid the wizard for a sup posed, revelation of the future, can bring the latter to justice for obtaining money on false pretenses. In the ancient world there was a
strong belief in fortune-telling, or the power to predict the future. At Rome the government appointed official fortune-tellers of the state, who from the flight of birds or the appearance presented by the entrails of sacrificial victims made calculations as to coming events. The oracles of Delphi and Dodona were consulted by the wisest and best pagan Greeks. At Rome fortunes were told, or believed to be told, by Fortune herself in her temple at Antium. The literature of the Middle Ages is full of allusions to fortune-telling, which also played a part in the fiction and drama of all countries up to the middle of the 19th century. The belief in fortune-telling has largely disappeared among educated people. This results from the ad vances made in physical science, the views which prevail concerning causation, and the limits of human experience. Rationalism, in its newest form of agnosticism, has likewise cleared the intellectual atmosphere, and made delusion and imposture less and less liable to obtain a footing or exercise an influence over sane minds. There remains, however, a con siderable body of people of various religions who believe to some degree in inspiration, prophecy and clairvoyance (q.v.), which latter is coming to be recognized by material science. See SECOND-SIGHT,