yli sit thrtiomsrp.
bra lianisri•nti,,n. This w the interpretation of the divine will by studying the entrails of I ict Practiced in very remote antiquity in the East. in Egypt. Cyprus. and Etru ria. it was familiar to the Greeks of the fifth century B.C.. not in Ilomerie days. It passed from Etruria to IZome, whore it served the pur• poses of statesmen (Cicero. De Dirinatione, 12). The nearest approach to this in recent days is palmistry. or reading the lines of the hands. and the old 'reading of the speal-bone,' called onioplatoseopy or scapulimancy which is the in spection of the lines in the shoulder-blade. Divination by lire (empyromancy). This consists in observing the ctlect of tire from the altar on wood, or on the offering. or again in watching the movements of the smoke and the wine of a liba tion. Divination by water (hydromancy) consist ed in the observation of objects east into water. Dirination by lots (cleromancy) was a method which required a movement consciously begun and directed by chance. Ilere may be placed asinomaney, which is the consideration of the movements of an axe placed on a post : eoseino 'nanny. or the observing of the results of the turn ing of a sieve hung on a thread : or again. (lady lomaney. or the interpretations of the oscillations of a ring hung over a cireular vase against which it strikes. This is a method of great antiquity, and is found in Homeric days. Among the Ro mans sortilegium. or casting of lots, belonged to this experimental form of divination. Small tab lets of wood. bone, or bronze were inscribed with various saying-, and when shuffled and drawn gave the prophecy. A number of them have come clown to our own times, and are described in Cor pus Inscriptionum Latinaram.l. pp. 26S-70. The term sortes was also given to selections from books used for a similar purpose. Compare with
this the chance reading of the Scriptures. Lines, from the great poets, particularly Vergil, were also employed as sortcs Very/liana' as mentioned by Spartianus in his Hadrian 11. In England. Charles 1. is said to have opened to _Eneid iv. 615. when consulting Vergil in the Bodleian Li brary at Oxford. Dice were also used by the Romans in this way. Dirinntion by meteorol ogy is represented by the study of lightning flashes and interpretation of them. Such were the signa es ealo interpreted by the augurs and haruspices. Divination by astrology was the most important in antiquity. and consisted of predictions made after observing the heavenly bodies. It arose among the Chaldeans. then passed to the Greeks, and finally to the Romans, among whom the term for astrologers was Chat dcri or mathrmatiei.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Consult: Cicero, De DirinaBibliography. Consult: Cicero, De Dirina- tione; Plutarch, De Pythim Orarnlis. and De [Wert,' Oraeulorum; Merger. in Pauly. Req/oncyriopiidic, ii. pp. 1113-1185 (Stutt gart. IS-12) ; Maury, llisloire des religions de la Greee antique—La divination et les oracles. vol. ii.. pp. 431-539 (Paris. 1S5T) : Selineider, Dir Dirinationen der _lite?: mit besonderer Thicksieht auf gurirn drr Romer (Kiilthen, 1R1i2 : Fontaine, Do Dirinationis Origin(' it Progressu (Rostock, 1S67 I : Ktunig, Das Orakehresen int A 1 ter thum. Program'', (Crefeld. ISTI) : 114(f ma nn. Das Orakelwesen inn .t h (Stuttgart, 1S7; ) : Bone10-Ieelereq. llistoire de la divination dons 1'antiquit4: (4 cols.. Paris. IST9-15H2) ; also article "Divination" in Daremherg et Saglio.
Dir des (inatillih'S Dechanihre PI Thomas. article in Die/ion/mire dr..,; sciences vic'dica/es, vol. xxx., pp. 24-96 (1501-1