Alphitomancy
A form of divination using a loaf of barley that was practiced in the
earliest of times. Chiefly it was employed to prove the innocence or guilt of
persons. One of its principle uses was in times when several persons were
suspected of a crime. All of the suspects were given the barley bread to eat, as it
was assumed that those innocent could eat it perfectly, while the guilty
person would get indigestion.
This practice gave rise to a popular oath: "If I am deceiving you, may this
piece of bread choke me." Eventually the practice became so prominent that it
was not just reserve for people suspected of crimes. It was used to test the
faithfulness of a mistress, a husband, or a wife.
There were procedures in both making the bread and administering it. A
quantity of pure barley was kneaded with milk, a little salt and without leaven.
This was rolled up in greased paper and baked among cinders. When baked it was
taken out and rubbed with verbena leaves. Then, pieces of it was given to the
suspects. Those that were guilty, it was assumed, would be unable to eat
it.
In ancients another form of alphitomancy was practiced. In a sacred wood of
Lavinium, near Rome, priests kept a serpent, or some say, a dragon. On
certain days of the year young women would enter the woods carrying cakes made of
barley and honey. It was said that the devil led the women into the woods.
Supposedly the serpent ate the cakes of the innocent women, but refused the
cakes of the others |
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