Alphitomancy
Form of divination using barley
Alphitomancy (from Greek: ἄλφιτον, romanized: alphiton, lit. 'barley', and μαντεία, manteia, 'divination') is a form of divination involving barley cakes or loaves of barley bread.
When someone in a group was suspected of a crime, the members of the group would be fed barley cakes or slices of barley bread. Supposedly, the guilty party would get indigestion, while all others would feel well.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Alphitomancy”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Barley bread לחם שעורה.jpg by פיית' בגינסקי, CC BY-SA 3.0
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