Haruspication
(See Divination.) Hasidim ( Pious Ones"): Devotees of a mystical phase of Judaism. They are first heard of in the pre-Maccabean age. In the first centuries of the Christian era we again hear of the Hasidim, sometimes supposed to be the descendants of the earlier sect. The later Hasidim were saints and workers of miracles, gifted with esoteric wisdom and the prophetic faculty. Early in the eighteenth century there arose yet another sect of the same name, having for its aim the revival of spirituality in the Jewish religion. Representatives of this mystic body are still to be found in Hungary, Poland, and Russia.