Note 42 — V.—CHARMS, SPELLS, AMULETS AND DIVINATIONS.

Divination by Virgilian, Homeric or Biblical Lots, in which the book being opened at random the sense of the words covered by the thumb is held to be prophetic, finds an exact counterpart in a Chinese practice. The classical works (an odd coincidence, as the two most celebrated of Western classics give their names to the Sortes Homericæ and Sortes Virgilianæ)42 are chiefly availed of for this purpose; but the Chinese pay more attention to the lucky or unlucky meaning of the particular characters touched than to the sense of the sentence in which they occur. Any one even but slightly acquainted with the written character of the language will easily conceive the vast field it presents for such purposes. Thus nu,43 a woman, enters into the composition of a large member of characters having an evil signification, and its presence in the word touched is therefore unlucky. The literary section of the community rather discourage frivolous appeals to such divinations, but are not above being guided by them in affairs which they deem important.