as a sinful practice; but, at the same time,
they were in the constant habit of directing their own course by such an
appeal, as, for instance, when they were about to travel on some
important business, they would fix that, if certain events happened,
they would regard such as a good omen from God, and would accordingly
undertake their journey; but if not, they would regard the
non-occurrence as an unfavourable omen, and defer their journey, in
submission, as they supposed, to the will of God. In modern times, the
practice of casting lots to determine legal or other important questions
has been abandoned by civilized nations; but the practice still exists
in less civilized communities, and is employed to determine such serious
matters as involve questions of life or death, and it still survives
among us in trivial matters, as games.

In my young days, a process of divining, allied to casting lots, was
resorted to by young women in order to discover a thief, or to ascertain
whether a young man who was courting one of them was in earnest, and
would in the future become that girl's husband. The process was called
the Bible and key trial, and the formula was as follows:--A key and
Bible were procured, the key being so much longer than the Bible that,
when placed between the leaves, the head and handle would project. If
the enquiry was about the good faith of a sweetheart, the key was placed
in Ruth i. 16, on the words, "Entreat me not to leave thee: where thou
goest I will go," etc. The Bible was then closed, and tied round with
tape. Two neutral persons, sitting opposite each other, held out the
forefingers of their right hands, and the person who was consulting the
oracle suspended the Bible between their two hands, resting the
projecting parts of the key on the outstretched forefingers. No one
spoke except the enquirer, and she, as she placed the key and Bible in
position, repeated slowly the whole passage, "Entreat me not to leave
thee," John or James, or whatever the name of the youth was, "for where
thou goest I will go," etc. If the key and Bible turned and fell off the
fingers, the answer was favourable; and generally by the time the whole
passage was repeated this was the result, provided the parties holding
up the key and Bible were firm and steady. For the detection of a thief,
the formula was the same, with only this difference, that the key was
put into the Bible at the fiftieth Psalm, and the enquirer named the