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prettygoodwordbelomancy - n., divination using arrows.
Pronounced BEL-eh-man-see. As it's direct from Greek, belos, arrow, dart + -mancy, you might expect the ancient Greeks practiced it -- and you'd be right, but they weren't the only ones. One method is to write or attach possible outcomes to a couple arrows and shoot them, and the one that flies furtherest is the result. Another, mentioned in Ezek 21:21, is to shake a quiver (or to draw blindly from it) and the arrow that falls out indicates the result. Jerome reports this was practiced by the Assyrians and Babylonians, Grotius by the Chaldeans and Scythians, and Tacitus by the Germans. Arabs, OTOH, apparently practiced the shooting method.
---L.
Pronounced BEL-eh-man-see. As it's direct from Greek, belos, arrow, dart + -mancy, you might expect the ancient Greeks practiced it -- and you'd be right, but they weren't the only ones. One method is to write or attach possible outcomes to a couple arrows and shoot them, and the one that flies furtherest is the result. Another, mentioned in Ezek 21:21, is to shake a quiver (or to draw blindly from it) and the arrow that falls out indicates the result. Jerome reports this was practiced by the Assyrians and Babylonians, Grotius by the Chaldeans and Scythians, and Tacitus by the Germans. Arabs, OTOH, apparently practiced the shooting method.
---L.
