DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0777
yo2 Superstitious practices with axes
ridiculum, but not half so 'ridiculous' as that eminent scholar sup-
posed ; for in East Prussia it is still customary for the midwife to put
red-hot coals on an axe and to step across it with the infant in her
arms1. This, however, is a case of prophylaxis, not of divination.
Axinomancy, strictly so called, has varied somewhat in its modus
operandi. A hatchet suspended by a cord was used to detect criminals
or discover secrets: it twisted and turned in answer to relevant
questions2. Again, a hatchet poised in equilibrium on a pole was
believed to bob at the name of the guilty party3. Lastly, a hatchet
stuck in a pole and carefully balanced would turn or nod as soon as
the right name in the list was reached4. These methods, detailed by
1 S. Seligmann Der bbse Blick und Verwandtes Berlin 1910 ii. 17.
2 j. j. Boissardus De divinatione 6° fuagicisprastigiis Oppenheimii s. a. [161-] p. 18 :
'Axinomantia eadem perflcit (sc. detects criminals or secrets) ex securi suspensa funiculo,
quae ad interrogata movetur & in gyrum vertitur,' E. B. Tylor in The Encyclopedia
Britannica11 Cambridge 1911 xx. 173 s.v. 'Ordeal': 'When a suspended hatchet was
used in the same way (sc. as a sieve) to turn to the guilty, the process was called axino-
mancy.''
3 J. Potter Archccologia Grceca1 London 1751 i. 352 : ' A^iuofxavTeia, from A^iv-q, i.e. an
Ax or Hatchet, which they fixed so exactly upon a round Stake, that neither End might
out-poise, or weigh down the other; then they pray'd, and repeated the Names of those
they suspected ; and the Person, at whose Name the Hatchet made any the least Motion,
was found guilty.'
j. Tuchmann in Alehtsine 1888—89 iv. 285 (followed by E. Riess in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-Enc. ii. 2627) mentions, among other means of discovering witchcraft, both these
forms of axinomancy : ' On suspendait une hache a une corde ou on la posait, le manche
en l'air, en equilibre sur un pieu. Apres la recitation de certaines formules, on tournait
autour de la corde ou du pieu en prononcant a haute voix le nom de toutes les personnes
soupconnees: la hache, dans le premier cas, tournait; dans le second, elle tombait.'
4 C. Peucerus Commentarius, de praecipais divinationum generibus Francofurti 1593
p. 321 : ' KoaKivo/xavTeia & d^ivofxavreiq., divinatione ex cribro et secziri, ad pervestigandos
atque aperiendos occultos scelerum authores, & res alias obscuras explorandas ac pro-
ferendas, incantatores utuntur. Hanc securi expediunt, rotundo palo infixa, aptataq; ad
normam ac perpendiculum, & cum praefatione, ordine enumeratis nominibus eorum, qui
in suspicione haerent: ad cuius se mentionem securis, vel levi impulsu circumagit aut
nutat, eum culpae reum peragunt. Illam' etc., M. Delrio Disquisitionum Magicarum
libri sex Lugduni 1612 p. 245^0: ' Decima ad eundem usum erat d^Luofxavreia, qua
securim rotundo infigebant palo, & ex eius motu furem deprehendebant. Quando autem
successus futuri divinatio petebatur, tuc gagatem lapidem securi imponebant, ut Pliniuss
(slib. 36. c. 19) refert,' j. Praetorius De Coscinomantia, Oder vom Sieb-Lauffe diatribe
curiosa Curiae Variscorum 1677 A 2 'ex D. Davide Herlicib, (Stetinens. 1602.) lib. 1. orat.
Gryphiswald. lit. H— Huic similis est d^Luo/xavreia, quae Securi rotundo polo [sic] infixa
perficitur: sicut eo modo apud Homerum produntur proci Penelopes,' ib. E 2 ' Dn.
Meisnerus Phil. sobr. p. 2. 1. 2. c. 3. q. r. Descriptionem d^ivo/xavreias non tarn commode
hie subjungit : ubi securis cylindraceo infigitur palo, adque normam aptatur ; ut ille sons
censeatur, cujus ad nomen se circumegerit,' A. Bouche-Leclercq Histoire de la divinatio7i
dans Vantiquite Paris 1879 i. 183 : 'Les vibrations ou oscillations d'une hache plantee
dans un poteau constituaient la matiere de Vaxinomancie (d^tvofxaureia), divination im-
portee en Europe par les mages orientaux2 (2plin., xxx, i, 14 ; xxxvi, 19, 34).' So also
W. Vollmer—W. Binder Wbrterbuch der Mythologie aller Fblker3 Stuttgart 1874 p. 86,
C. Kiesewetter Die Geheimwissenschaften Leipzig 1895 p. 375.
ridiculum, but not half so 'ridiculous' as that eminent scholar sup-
posed ; for in East Prussia it is still customary for the midwife to put
red-hot coals on an axe and to step across it with the infant in her
arms1. This, however, is a case of prophylaxis, not of divination.
Axinomancy, strictly so called, has varied somewhat in its modus
operandi. A hatchet suspended by a cord was used to detect criminals
or discover secrets: it twisted and turned in answer to relevant
questions2. Again, a hatchet poised in equilibrium on a pole was
believed to bob at the name of the guilty party3. Lastly, a hatchet
stuck in a pole and carefully balanced would turn or nod as soon as
the right name in the list was reached4. These methods, detailed by
1 S. Seligmann Der bbse Blick und Verwandtes Berlin 1910 ii. 17.
2 j. j. Boissardus De divinatione 6° fuagicisprastigiis Oppenheimii s. a. [161-] p. 18 :
'Axinomantia eadem perflcit (sc. detects criminals or secrets) ex securi suspensa funiculo,
quae ad interrogata movetur & in gyrum vertitur,' E. B. Tylor in The Encyclopedia
Britannica11 Cambridge 1911 xx. 173 s.v. 'Ordeal': 'When a suspended hatchet was
used in the same way (sc. as a sieve) to turn to the guilty, the process was called axino-
mancy.''
3 J. Potter Archccologia Grceca1 London 1751 i. 352 : ' A^iuofxavTeia, from A^iv-q, i.e. an
Ax or Hatchet, which they fixed so exactly upon a round Stake, that neither End might
out-poise, or weigh down the other; then they pray'd, and repeated the Names of those
they suspected ; and the Person, at whose Name the Hatchet made any the least Motion,
was found guilty.'
j. Tuchmann in Alehtsine 1888—89 iv. 285 (followed by E. Riess in Pauly—Wissowa
Real-Enc. ii. 2627) mentions, among other means of discovering witchcraft, both these
forms of axinomancy : ' On suspendait une hache a une corde ou on la posait, le manche
en l'air, en equilibre sur un pieu. Apres la recitation de certaines formules, on tournait
autour de la corde ou du pieu en prononcant a haute voix le nom de toutes les personnes
soupconnees: la hache, dans le premier cas, tournait; dans le second, elle tombait.'
4 C. Peucerus Commentarius, de praecipais divinationum generibus Francofurti 1593
p. 321 : ' KoaKivo/xavTeia & d^ivofxavreiq., divinatione ex cribro et secziri, ad pervestigandos
atque aperiendos occultos scelerum authores, & res alias obscuras explorandas ac pro-
ferendas, incantatores utuntur. Hanc securi expediunt, rotundo palo infixa, aptataq; ad
normam ac perpendiculum, & cum praefatione, ordine enumeratis nominibus eorum, qui
in suspicione haerent: ad cuius se mentionem securis, vel levi impulsu circumagit aut
nutat, eum culpae reum peragunt. Illam' etc., M. Delrio Disquisitionum Magicarum
libri sex Lugduni 1612 p. 245^0: ' Decima ad eundem usum erat d^Luofxavreia, qua
securim rotundo infigebant palo, & ex eius motu furem deprehendebant. Quando autem
successus futuri divinatio petebatur, tuc gagatem lapidem securi imponebant, ut Pliniuss
(slib. 36. c. 19) refert,' j. Praetorius De Coscinomantia, Oder vom Sieb-Lauffe diatribe
curiosa Curiae Variscorum 1677 A 2 'ex D. Davide Herlicib, (Stetinens. 1602.) lib. 1. orat.
Gryphiswald. lit. H— Huic similis est d^Luo/xavreia, quae Securi rotundo polo [sic] infixa
perficitur: sicut eo modo apud Homerum produntur proci Penelopes,' ib. E 2 ' Dn.
Meisnerus Phil. sobr. p. 2. 1. 2. c. 3. q. r. Descriptionem d^ivo/xavreias non tarn commode
hie subjungit : ubi securis cylindraceo infigitur palo, adque normam aptatur ; ut ille sons
censeatur, cujus ad nomen se circumegerit,' A. Bouche-Leclercq Histoire de la divinatio7i
dans Vantiquite Paris 1879 i. 183 : 'Les vibrations ou oscillations d'une hache plantee
dans un poteau constituaient la matiere de Vaxinomancie (d^tvofxaureia), divination im-
portee en Europe par les mages orientaux2 (2plin., xxx, i, 14 ; xxxvi, 19, 34).' So also
W. Vollmer—W. Binder Wbrterbuch der Mythologie aller Fblker3 Stuttgart 1874 p. 86,
C. Kiesewetter Die Geheimwissenschaften Leipzig 1895 p. 375.