Sorrel-leaf
A sorrel-leaf was sometimes used to bewitch people, as in the case of the Irish Witch mentioned in George Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World Displayed, who gave to a girl a leaf of sorrel, which the child put into her mouth. Great torture ensued for the child, such tortures being increased on the approach of the witch.
Sortilege, or divination by lots, is one of the most ancient and common superstitions. We find it used among the Oriental nations to detect a guilty person, as when Saul by this means discovered that Jonathan had disobeyed his command by taking food, and when the sailors by a similar process found Jonah to be the cause of the tempest by which they were overtaken. The methods of using the lot have been very numerous, such as Rhabdomancy, Clidomancy, the Sortes Sagittariæ, otherwise Belomancy, and the common casting of dice. The following are the more classical :- Sortes Thriæcæ, or Thriæan lots, were chiefly used in Greece; they were pebbles or counters distinguished by certain characters which were cast into an urn, and the first that came out was supposed to contain the right direction. This form of divination received its name from the Thriæ, three nymphs supposed to have nursed Apollo, and to have invented this mode of predicting futurity. Sortes Viales, or street and road lots, were used both in Greece and Rome. The person that was desirous to learn his fortune carried with him a certain number of lots, distinguished by several characters or inscriptions, and walking to and fro in the public ways desired the first boy whom he met to draw, and the inscription on the lot thus drawn was received as an infallible prophecy. Plutarch declares that this form of divination was derived from the Egyptians, by whom the actions and words of boys were carefully observed as containing in them something prophetical. Another form of the Sortes Viales was exhibited by a boy, but sometimes by a man, who posted himself in a public place to give responses to all comers. He was provided with a tablet, on which certain fatidical verses were written; when consulted, he cast dice on the tablet, and the verses on which they fell were supposed to contain the proper direction. Sometimes instead of tablets they had urns, in which the fatidical verses were thrown, written upon slips of parchment. The verse drawn out was received as a sure guide and direction. To this custom Tibullus alludes:-
Thrice in the streets the sacred lots she threw,
And thrice the boy a happy omen drew.
This form of divining was often practised with the Sibylline oracles, and was hence named Sortes Sibyllina. 66 Sortes Prenestinæ, or the Prenestine lots, were used in Italy; the letters of the alphabet were placed in an urn and shaken; they were then turned out upon the floor, and the words which they accidentally formed were received as omens. This superstitious use of letters is still common in Eastern nations. The Mussulmans have a divining table, which they say was invented by the prophet Edris or Enoch. It is divided into a hundred little squares, each of which contains a letter of the Arabic alphabet. The person who consults it repeats three times the opening chapter of the Koran, and the 57th verse of the 6th chapter: With Him are the keys of the secret things; knoweth them but Him; He knoweth whatever is on the dry ground, or in the sea: there falleth no leaf but He knoweth it; neither is there a single grain in the dark parts of the earth, nor a green thing, nor a dry thing, but it is written in a perspicuous book." Having concluded this recitation, he averts his head from the table and places his finger upon it; he then looks to see upon what letter his finger is placed, writes that letter; the fifth following it; the fifth following that again; and so on until he comes back to the first he had touched: the letters thus collected form the answer. none Sortes Homericæ and Sortes Virgilianæ, divination by opening some poem at hazard, and accepting the passage which first turns up as an answer. This practice probably arose from the esteem which poets had among the ancients, by whom they were reputed divine and inspired persons. Homer's works among the Greeks had the most credit, but the tragedies of Euripides and other celebrated poems were occasionally used for the same purpose. The Latins Purpose: chiefly consulted Virgil, and many curious coincidences are related by grave historians, between the prediction and the event; thus, the elevation of Severus to the empire is supposed to have been foretold by his opening at this verse-
Remember, Roman, with imperial sway to rule the nations.
Spain It is said that Charles I. and Lord Falkland made trial of the Virgilian lots a little before the commencement of the great civil war. The former opened at that passage in the fourth book of the Æneid where Dido predicts the violent death of her faithless lover; the latter at the lamentation of Evander over his son in the eleventh book; if the story be true, the coincidences between the responses and events are among the most remarkable recorded.
Sortes Biblicæ, divination by the Bible, which the early Christians used instead of the profane poets. Nicephorus Gregoras recommends the Psalter as the fittest book for the purpose, but Cedrenus informs us that the New Testament was more commonly used. St. Augustine denounces this practice in temporal affairs, but declares in one of his letters that he had recourse to it in all cases of spiritual difficulty. Another form of the Biblical lots is to go to a place of worship, and take as an omen the first passage of Scripture read by the minister, or the text from which he preaches. This is no uncommon practice in modern times, and it is frequently vindicated by persons who ought to know better.
The Mussulmans consult the Koran in a similar manner, but they deduce their answer from the seventh line of the right-hand page. Others count how often the letters kha and shin occur in the page; if kha (the first letter of kheyr, "good") predominate, the answer is deemed favourable; but if shin (the first letter of shin "evil") be more frequent, the inference is that the projects of the inquirer are forbidden or dangerous.
It would be easy to multiply examples of these efforts to obtain guidance from blind chance; they were once so frequent, that it was deemed necessary to denounce them from the pulpit as being clearly forbidden by the divine precept, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."