There was an ancient Custom of opening some celebrated Poem, as Homer's or Virgil's, and whatever Passage presented itself first to the Eye constituted a Kind of Answer by Oracle: It was called the Sortes Homerica and Sortes Virgiliana.—The Superstitious among the antient Christians practised a similar Kind of Divination, by opening the Old or New Testament. Mr. Pennant gives us an Account of another Sort of Divination, used in Scotland, called "reading the Speal Bone, or the Blade"bone of a Shoulder of Mutton well scraped*. "When Lord Loudon, he says, was obliged to "retreat before the Rebels to the Isle of Sky, a "common Soldier, on the very Moment the Battle "of Culloden was decided, proclaimed the Victory "at that Distance, pretending to have discovered "the Event by looking through the Bone." p. 155.

One may add to Mr. Pennant's Account, the strange Qualification many of the Inhabitants of the western Islands of Scotland are said to have, called Second Sight. It is a Faculty of seeing Things to come, or at a great Distance, represented to the Imagination as if actually visible and present. This strange Thing has been well attested, and that by Authors of Credit. Credat Judæus apella!—See the Appendix, Article Second Sight.

The fungous Parcells (so Browne calls them) about the Wicks of Candles, are commonly thought

Mr. Shaw says picked: No Iron must touch it. Vide Tacit. Annal. 14.

and ridiculous are the Superstitions concerning Moles on different Parts of the Body.

Dr. Browne tells us, that to sit cross-legg'd, or with our Fingers pectinated or shut together, is accounted bad, and friends will persuade us from it. The same Conceit religiously possessed the Antients, as is observable from Pliny, " Poplites al"ternis genibus imponere, nefas olim," and also from Athenæus, that it was an old veneficious Practice; and Juno is made in this Posture, to hinder the Delivery of Alcmæna. Vide Vulg. Errors.

The Observation on the falling of Salt, proceeds from the antient Opinion that Salt was incorruptible; it had therefore been made the Symbol of Friendship; and if it fell casually, they thought their Friendship would not be of long Duration. Bailey's Dictionary, &c.

The witty Dean of St. Patrick's, in his Invective against Wood, gives a fine philosophical Account of the Death-Watch.*

A Wood Worm

That lies in old wood, like a Hare in her form:

With Teeth or with Claws it will bite or will scratch,

And Chambermaids christen this Worm a Death-Watch :
Because, like a Watch, it always cries click ;

Then Woe be to those in the House who are sick;
For, as sure as a Gun, they will give up the Ghost,
If the Maggot cries click, when it scratches the Post.

*Pliny, in his Natural History, 29th Book, mentions the Cricket as much esteemed by the antient Magicians: No doubt our Superstitions concerning these little Domestics have been transmitted to us from his Times.

But

But a Kettle of scalding hot Water injected,
Infallibly cures the Timber affected:

The Omen is broken, the Danger is over,

The Maggot will die and the Sick will recover*.

Various were the Species of Divination† practised by antient Superstition.-The Druids interpreted Omens, and doubtless both invented and handed down many of them.

No Bondage seems so dreadful as that of Superstition: It hath ever imposed the most abject Kind of Slavery. I have known (says the Spectator) the shooting of a Star spoil a Night's Rest, and have seen a Man in Love grow pale and lose his Appetite upon the plucking of a Merrythought.-A screech Owl at Midnight has alarmed a Family more than a Band of Robbers, and the Voice of a Cricket

Mr. Gay, in his Pastoral Dirge, has preserved some of the rural Prognostications of Death.

The Weather's Bell

Before the drooping Flock toll'd forth her Knell;
The solemn Death-Watch cliek'd the hour she dy'd,
And shrilling Crickets in the Chimney cry'd.
The boding Raven on her Cottage sat,

And with hoarse croaking warn'd us of her Fate:
The Lambkin, which her wonted Tendance bred,
Dropp'd on the Plains that fatal Instant dead;
Swarm'd on a rotten Stick the Bees I spy'd,

Which erst I saw when Goody Dobson dy'd.

+ Such as Hydromancy, making Conjectures by Water:-LibaRomancy, Divination by Frankincense:- Onychomancy or Onymancy, Divination performed by the Nails of an unpolluted Boy.In short, by Water, Fire, Earth, Air, by the Flight of Birds, by Lots, by Dreams, by the Wind, &c. &c.

Divination by the Rod or Wand is mentioned in Ezekiel.

Our vulgar Notion of the liazel's Tendency to a Vein of Lead Cre, Neam of Coul, &c. seems to be a Vestige of this Rod Divina

has struck more Terror than the Roaring of a Lion. Nothing, he observes, is so inconsiderable, which may not appear dreadful to an Imagination that is filled with Omens and Prognostics :—A rusty Nail, or a crooked Pin shoots up into Prodigies.

For when we think Fate hovers o'er our Heads,
Our Apprehensions shoot beyond all Bounds:
Owls, Ravens, Crickets seem the Watch of Death;
Nature's worst Vermin scare her godlike Sons;
Echoes, the very Leavings of a Voice,

Grow babbling Ghosts, and call us to our Graves.
Each Mole-hill Thought swells to a huge Olympus,
While we, fantastic Dreamers, heave and puff,

And sweat with an Imagination's Weight.

Dryden's and Lee's Oedipus.

The Author of the Vulgar Errors tells us, that hollow Stones are hung up in Stables to prevent the Night Mare, or Ephialtes. They are usually called in the North, Holy Stones.-The Chips of Gallows and Places of Execution are used for Amulets against Agues. I saw lately some Saw-Dust, in which Blood was absorbed, taken for some such Purpose from off the Scaffold on the beheading of one of the rebel Lords, 1746.-For Warts, we rub our Hands before the Moon, and commit any maculated Part to the Touch of the Dead.-Various are the superstitious Charms for driving away Rats, &c.

Dr. Browne has left several curious Observations on these popular Notions. That Candles and Lights (says he) burn blue and dim at the appa