og into a house, the falling of a snake through the
opening in the roof, the crowing of a hen were unfavorable signs which
prevented the immediate undertaking of any new affair;[1615] these were
all unusual and therefore uncanny occurrences. Some of the animals that
furnish omens are totems, and in such cases the totemic significance
coalesces with that of the omen; the animal that appears to the young
Sioux candidate as his manitu has both characters--it is the sign of
divine acceptance and the embodiment of the divine patron.[1616]

+913+. Prodigies connected with the birth of children are numerous. The
complete or incomplete character of the infant's body, various marks and
colors, and the number produced at a birth have been carefully noted by
many peoples. The birth of twins seems to have been more commonly
regarded in savage and half-civilized communities either as a presage of
misfortune (as being unusual and mysterious) or as a sign of conjugal
unfaithfulness (as indicating two fathers, one of whom might be a god).
Interpretations of births are given in Babylonian records.[1617]
Everywhere monstrous births, misshapen forms, and abnormal colors in the
bodies of men and beasts have been regarded as indications of divine
displeasure.

+914+. That the stars early attracted the attention of man is shown by
the fact that constellations are recognized in some lower tribes--for
example, in the New Hebrides Islands, among the Todas, the Masai, the
Nandi, and elsewhere.[1618] Since all heavenly bodies were regarded
originally as divine, and later as controlled by divine beings,
sometimes also as the abodes of the dead or as the souls of the dead, it
was natural that astral movements should be looked on as giving signs of
the will of the gods. Astronomy appears to have been pursued in the
first instance not from interest in the natural laws governing the
movements of sun, moon, and stars, but from belief in their divinatory
significance. How far this study was carried on all over the ancient
world we have no means of knowing; but, as far as the records go, it
was the Babylonians that first reduced astral divination to the form of
a science,[1619] and it is probable that from them it spread over
Western Asia and India, and perhaps into Europe. Babylonian and Assyrian
documents contain many accurate statements of the appearances of
heavenly bodies; and in the third or second century B.C., as we learn
from the Book of Daniel