THOMAS OF ERCILDOUNE. 17 



attained to such an enviable state of independence, that he is 

 represented as frequently playing at pitch and toss with the 

 " devyl," and cheating and outwitting that crafty potentate as if he 

 were the veriest greenhorn ! The Sortes Sacrce were just the Sortes 

 Virgiliance, with this difference, that in the former case, instead of 

 a copy of Virgil, the New Testament was used in the process of 

 divination. The oracle is consulted in this case, according to our 

 information, by the introduction at random of the wards end of a 

 key (some allusion probably to the Apostolic keys) between the 

 leaves of the closed volume, which is then opened at that place, and 

 from the first verse that arrests the eye the desired knowledge is 

 extracted. On inquiry, we find that this superstition was still 

 occasionally practised in the Highlands of Scotland some fifty years 

 ago, though we would fain hope and believe that it is now 

 unknown. It is curious that it should still be frequently resorted 

 to in the south-western districts. It seems to have been a very ' 

 general as well as a very ancient mode of divination, Hoffman, in 

 his Lexicon Universale, ^c, informs us that it was practised by 

 the Jewish Eabbins with their sacred books, as well as by the 

 Pagans from very early times, and was common amongst the 

 Christians of the Middle Ages. We are informed by a gentleman, 

 who spent many years in the East, that the Mahometans frequently 

 resort to this method of divination, taking the Koran as their 

 oracle. 



