808 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



small pieces, which, distinguished by certain marks, are thrown pro- 

 miscuously upon a white garment. Then the priest of the canton, if 

 the occasion be public (if private, the master of the family), after an 

 invocation of the gods, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, thrice takes 

 out each piece, and, as they come up, interprets their signification 

 according to the marks fixed upon them. If the result prove unfavor- 

 able, there is no more consultation upon the same affair that day; if 

 propitious, a consultation by omens is still required." 



More closely resembling the practices described in the text is the 

 German method of divination as related by Saxo-Grammaticus^ of 

 the inhabitants of the Isle of Rugen, in the Baltic Sea: 



Throwing, by way of lots, three pieces of wood, white in one part and black in 

 another, into their laps, they foretold good fortune by the foming up of the white; 

 bad by that of the black. 



Fig. 122. 



BARESMA. 



Length, 5 inches. 



From drawing of originals in tbf jmssession of Prof. A. V. Williams Jackson. 



The reference in Herodotus- to divination among the Scytihians, in 

 which large bundles of rods were used, seems to refer to the class of 

 divinatory rites that will be treated in the second part of this paper. 



Lenormand^ states that the Magi foretold the future by throwing 

 little sticks of tamarisk wood. The authoiity which he cites ^ makes 

 no specific mention of any such performance, but merely says that the 

 "Magi and Scythians prophesy with staves {ligno); and in many places 

 l^rophesyiiig tbey use twigs [virgi.s). Dinon says that the Median 

 magi also prophesy by twigs {virga).^^ Dinon no doubt referred to the 

 baresma, of which mention is also made by Strabo.'^ 



The baresma (now called barsom) was a bundle of sacred twigs which 

 the priest held in his hands while reciting the prayers (Plate 18). They 

 were formerly twigs of the pomegranate, date, or tamarind tree, or any 

 tree that had no thorns, and were plucked with peculiar ceremonies 

 which alone made them fit to be used for liturgic purposes.^ 



' HLst. Dan., XIV, p. 288. 



sVolnme IV, p. 67. 



■'Chaldean Magic, London, 1877, p. 237. 



" Schol. Nicandr. Theriac, V, p. 613. 



'^ "They (the Magi) continue their incantations * * * holding before the lire 

 a bundle of rods," XV, Cap. 3. 



"The Zend Avesta. Trauslated by James Darrasteter, Oxford, 1880. Vendidud, 

 III, Pt. 1, p. 22, note 2. The Parsi.s in India I'oiind it convenient to replace them with 

 brass wires, which when once consecrated can be used for an indefinite period. {Ibid. ) 



