little
bird, or to deprive it of a sprig of laurel it carried through the
air. The bird was overtaken, and torn to pieces by its pursuers.

We are told that if one take young swallows and put them in a pot to
cook them, he will, on taking off the lid, find two of the swallows
kissing each other, and two turning one from the other. If the kissing
birds be dissolved in oil of roses, they will prove effectual, when
applied according to custom, in securing the affections of the most
blooming young lady in the parish; but in making use of the birds
found back to back, for creating sympathetic feelings, they require to
be pounded into an ointment, and applied to the eyelids of him or her
whose affections are sought. If the tongue of a goose be cut out when
the fowl is alive, and laid on the breast of a man or woman when
asleep, he or she will confess every sin of life. When a man carried
the heart of a male crow, and his wife the heart of a female crow,
they lived in peace and happiness. It was customary with the good
housewives of England, on placing eggs in a nest for incubation, to
swing a lighted candle over them, as a charm to prevent hawks, crows,
and other birds of prey, flying away with the young birds hatched from
the eggs.

Divination by means of a sieve was often resorted to. The sieve was
suspended after the operator had repeated a particular form of words,
and, by certain manipulations, information was obtained concerning
thefts, etc. The names of suspected parties were repeated while the
implement was made to turn round; and on the guilty person being
named, the sieve, instead of turning swiftly and steadily, began to
oscillate and shake. This was a very ancient practice, in which great
faith was put. Theocritus mentions a woman who was very skilful in her
art. At times the sieve was suspended by a thread, or fixed at the
point of a pair of scissors, giving it room to turn, and naming, as
before, the suspected persons. Coscinomancy was practised in England
at no distant date.

Divination by means of smoke (Capnomancy) was in use among the
ancients in their sacrifices. It was a good sign when the smoke rose
light and straight. If, on the contrary, the smoke ascended dark and
dense, evil was foretold.

Catoptromancy was a species of divination performed by the aid of a
mirror. This method of divination was common among the Achaians. The
mode of procedure was, when one was sick and in danger of death, to
let