Enxuaνria was a fort of Divination by Verfes, wherein 'twas ufual to take fatidical Verses, and, having wrote them upon little Pieces of Paper, to put them into a Veffel, and fo draw them out, expecting to read their Fate in the first Draught. This was often practis'd upon the Sibylline Oracles, which were difpers'd up and down in Greece, Italy, and all the Roman Empire; whence there is frequent Mention in Authors of the Sortes Sibyllinæ. Sometimes they took a Poet, and, opening in one or more Places, accepted the firft Verse they met with for a Prediction. This was alfo called Pawdouarreia, from the Rhapsodies of Homer, and, as fome are of Opinion, proceeded at the first from the Esteem which Poets had amongst the Ancients, by whom they were reputed Divine and Infpired Perfons. But as Homer had of all the Poets the greatest Name, fo alfo the Sortas Homerica of all others were in the most Credit: Yet Euripides and other Poets were not wholly neglected. Virgil alfo and the Latin Poets were made ufe of in this Way, as appears as well from other Inftances as that remarkable one of Severus in Lampridius, whofe Promotion to the Roman Empire was foretold by opening at this Verfe, Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento. Remember, Roman, with Imperial Sway The Chriftians also practis'd the like on the Bible, according to that of Nicephorus Gregoras *. Ανοίξειν έκρινε δεῖν ἐν ψαλτηρίω πρόβλημα cintíov amer, i. e. He judg'd it neceffary to dip into the Pfalter, that there he might find a Support or Defence against the Diftrefs he laboured under. And Heraclius is reported by Cedrenus to have asked Counfel of the New Teftament, καὶ εύγῶν ἐπιβέποντα ἐν Αλβανία Βραχει four, and to have been thereby perfuaded to winter in Albania. Saint Auguftin himself, tho' he difallows this Practice in fecular Affairs, yet feems to approve of it in spiritual Matters, as appears from his Epiftle to Januarius". સ And Kaneguaria was a fort of Divination, wherein they made Conjectures by throwing xapes, Lots; where you may obferve, that Lots were call'd in the plural Number xañe, and by the Latins fortes; to diftinguish them from angs, and fors, which in the fingular Number ufually fignified the Hint or Occafion given to Diviners to make their Conjectures by, as the Scholiaft upon Euripides reports. These nane were ufually black and white Beans; amongst the Ancients little Clods of Earth; Pebbles alfo, Dice, or fuch like Things, diftinguished by certain Characters: Hence this Divination was term'd by feveral Names, as ψηφομαντεία, αςραγαλομαντεία, κυβομαντεία, πως Marsia, &c. They caft the Lots into a Veffel, and, having made Supplication to the Gods to direct them, drew them out, and according to the Characters conjectur'd what should happen to them. All Lots were facred to Mercury, whom they thought to prefide over this Divination; and therefore the Ancients, as Euflathius obferves, cuepuías vera, i. e. for c Chap. 16. Good Luck's Sake, and that Mercury might be propitious to them, used, with the reft of their Lots, to put in one which they call'd Egus nañegv, Mercury's Lot, which was an Olive-Leaf, and was drawn out before the reft. Sometimes the Lots were not caft into Veffels, but upon Tables confecrated for that purpose. This Divination was either invented, or at least fo much practis'd by the Thria, who were three Nymphs that nurfed Apollo, that at length the Word Oeiau came to be a fynonymous Term with Kañer whence the Proverb, Πολλοὶ Θριοβόλοι, παῦροι δέ τε μάντεις ἄνδρες. Crowds of your Lot-Diviners ev'ry-where, To this Species of Divination we may reduce Pacuania, or Prophefying by Rods, mention'd alfo in the Holy Writings, wherein Hofea, amongst other abominable Wickedneffes committed by the Ifraelites, reckons this as none of the smallest, Ev ovucónors Emperor, καὶ ἐν ραβδοις αυτό απήγ[ειλον αυτῷ, πνεύματι πορνείας επλανήθη, καὶ ἐξε Tópud q who I see a Tv. Our Tranflation renders it thus: My People ask Counsel of their Stocks, and their Staff declareth unto them; for the Spirit of Whoredom bath caufed them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. This Divination, as it is defcribed by St. Cyril of Alexandria and Theophylact, was thus perform'd: Having erected two Sticks, they murmur'd forth a certain Charm, and then according as the Sticks fell, backwards or forwards, towards the Right or Left, they gave Advice in any Affair. Not much different was Beλoμavesía, in which Divination was made by Arrows, fhaken together in a Quiver. Others are of Opinion, that the Arrows were caft into the Air, and the Man was to steer his Course the fame Way that the Arrow inclin'd in its Descent. This feems to be the Divination us'd by Nebuchadnezzar in Ezechiel, where he deliberates about invading the Ifraelites, and the Ammonites: The Words are thefe, as they are rendered by our Tranflators & Appoint a Way, that the Sword may come to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Juda in Jerufalem the defenced. For the King of Babylon food at the Parting of the Way, at the Head of two Ways, to ufe Divination: he made his Arrow bright, (the Septuagint Tranflation fpeaks not of six, but fab♪O) be confulted with Images, he looked into the Liver. At his Right-hand was his Divination for Jerufalem, to appoint Captains, to open the Mouth in the Slaughter, to lift up the Voice with Shouting, to appoint Battering-Rams against the Gates, to caft a Mount, and to build a Fort. But because the Prophet speaks of making his Arrows bright, fome are of Opinion, that he divined by looking upon the Iron Heads of the Arrows, and observing the various Appearances in them; in the fame manner, as fome in our Days pretend to tell Fortunes, by looking upon their Nails, faith Clarius upon that Place. Another Method of Divination by Rods was us'd by the Scgthians, and is described in Herodotus h. From the Scythians it was derived, with fome Alteration, to the Germans, and is described by a Pindari Scholiaft, in Pythion. Od. iv. ver. 338. citatum Hofea locum. Cap. xxi. ver. 20. e Cap. iv. v. 12. h Lib, iv. f In Tacitus. Tacitus i. Others alfo you may read of in Strabo, Athenæus ', and Ammianus Marcellinus m ; but these and fome others I fhall pass by, as not pertinent to my prefent Defign. Another Way of Divination by Lots was used in Greece and Rome, in this manner: The Perfon that was defirous to learn his Fortune car ried with him a certain Number of Lots, diftinguifh'd by feveral Characters or Infcriptions, and walking to and fro in the publick Ways, defired the first Boy that met him, to draw; and if that which came forth agreed with what he had conceiv'd in his Mind, it was taken for an infallible Prophecy. This Divination is by Plutarch, in his Treatife about Ifis and Ofiris, faid to be derived from the Egyptians, by whom the Actions and Words of Boys were carefully obferved, as containing in them fomething Divine and Prophetical; and that for a Reason no lefs abfurd than the Practice itself; all the Ground they had for it being only this, viz. That Ifis, having wander'd up and down in a fruitlefs Search after Ofiris, happen'd at laft upon a Company of Boys at Play, and was by them inform'd about what she had fo long fought for in vain. To this Cuttom of Divining by Boys, as fome think, Tibullus alludes, when he faith, Illa facras pueri fortes ter fuftulit, illi Thrice in the Streets the facred Lots fhe threw, But I am rather of Opinion, that the Poet fpeaks of a different Kind of Lots, which was this: In the Market, High-ways, and other Places of Concourse, it was usual for a Boy, or a Man, whom the Greeks call'd Αγύρτης, to ftand with a little Tablet call'd in Greek πίναξ αγυρτικός, or ajveлn oavis, upon which were written certain fatidical Verfes, which, according as the Dice light upon them, told the Confultants what Fortune they were to expect. Sometimes, inftead of Tablets, they had Pots or Urns, into which the Lots or fatidical Verses were thrown, and thence drawn by the Boys; and I am the rather inclined to think the Poet's Words to be understood in this Senfe, because he faith, the Woman herself that had a mind to be inftructed what was to befall her, took up the Lots; which can never be meant of the Boy's drawing Lots out of the Woman's Hand. Artemidorus, in his Preface, fpeaks of 7 v 28 udvrewv, i. e. Diviners in the MarketPlace; and the Sortes viales were very common at Rome: The Circus was thronged with thofe, and a great many other Diviners, which the poor filly Women ufed to confult, as Juvenal witnefleth: His Words are thefe : Si mediocris erit, fpatium luftrabit utrumque Lib, de Morib, German, Lib. i. Eleg. iii, * Lib. xv. • Sat, vi. v. 581. Lib, xii m Lib. xxix. Conductus, Conductus, dabit aftrorum, mundique peritus ; The middle fort, who have not much to spare, And from the cheaper Lots their Fortunes hear. Who clap the pretty Palm, and thence their Fortunes know. Her Answers from the Brachman will receive. Skill'd in the Globe and Sphere, he gravely ftands, And with his Compafs measures Seas and Lands. Whereby it appears, that Lots had very fmall Credit in Juvenal's Days, CHA P. XVII. Of Divination by ominous Words and Things. font there was from al those I have hitherto fpoken of, which foretold things to come, not by certain Accidents and cafual Occurrences, that were thought to contain in them Prefages of Good or Evil. Of these there were three Sorts: The firft of Things Internal, by which I mean those that affected the Perfons themselves. The second, of Things External, that only appeared to Men, but did not make any Impreffion upon them. The third were Ominous Words. Of these in their Order. First, Of those Omens that Men receiv'd from themselves, which are diftinguish'd into four Kinds; 1. Marks upon the Body, as λala, Spots like Oil. Secondly, fudden Perturbations feizing upon the Mind; fuch were the Panici Terrores, Panic Fears, which were fudden Confternations that feized upon Men without any vifible Caufe, and therefore were imputed to the Operation of Damons, efpecially Pan, upon Men's Fancies. Of these there is frequent Mention in Hiftory; as when Brennus the Gallick General had been defeated by the Greeks, the Night following he and the Remainder of his Troops were feized with fuch Terrors and Distractions, that, ignorant of what they they were doing, they fell to wounding and killing one another; till they were all utterly deftroy'd. Such another Fright gave the Athenians a great Advantage against the Perfians, infomuch that Pan had a Statue erected for that piece of Service; as appears from one of Simonides's Epigrams, Τὸν τραγόπον ἐμὲ Πᾶνα, τὸν κατὰ Μήδων, Τὸν μετ' Αθωαίων ςήσατο Μιλτιάδης Grateful Miltiades rais'd this Monument, The Reason why thefe Terrors were attributed to Pan was, because, when Ofiris was bound by Typho, Pan and the Satyrs appearing caft him into a Fright. Or, becaufe he affrighted the Giants that waged War against Jupiter. There is alfo a third Reafon affigned by Mythologifts, which will be explain'd in the following Book In these Terrors, whereof there was either no apparent Caufe, or at leaft none answerable to the Greatness of the fudden Confternation, it was a good Remedy to do fomething quite contrary to what the Danger would have required, had it been fuch as Men vainly imagin'd. Thus Alexander caufed his Soldiers to difarm themselves, when they were on a fudden in a great Fear of they knew not what. All fudden and extraordinary Emotions and Perturbations, in Body or Mind, were look'd upon as evil Omens; fuch was that of Penelope's Courtiers described by b Homer, and said to have been caused by Minerva, their implacable Enemy; - μνηςήρσι ἢ Παλλάς Αθήνη Ασβεσον γέλον ώρσε, παρέπλαγξεν ἢ νόημα. The Courtiers ftraight offended Pallas feiz'd And raving frantick Thoughts; they now appear But lamentable Grief. An Augur then prefent was affrighted at this dreadful Omen, and presently broke out into this Exclamation, Α δειλοί τί κακὸν τέδε παχετε ; Ah wretched Men! what Fate is this you bear? a Lib. iii. cap. ix. pag. 84. b Odyff.. v. 345. Z The |