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Axinomancy

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Axford, William

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Dictionaries
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
• Axinomancy
Webster Dictionary
• Axinomancy
Encyclopedias
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Axinomancy

(from ἀξίνη, an axe, and μαντεία, divination) is divination among the ancient Greeks by means of an axe or hatchet. A hatchet was fixed in equipoise upon a round stake, and the individual towards whom it moved was regarded as the guilty person. If suspicion rested upon any persons not present, their names were repeated, and the, person at the repetition of whose name the hatchet moved was concluded to be guilty of the crime of which, he was suspected. Another mode of practicing. the art was by laying an agate-stone on a red-hot hatchet and watching its movements.