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EXPLOEING THE FUTUEE. 281
tions repeatedly— ^say three times—and very care-
fully noting whetlier there was any difference in
dimensions between the first and last measurement.
If the last was greatest they believed it to forbode
increasing prosperity to the occupant of the house ;
but if the contrary happened, then they believed it
would always go down-hill with him.
The second above-mentioned mode of consulting
the Gods appears to have been the most generally
employed. Two kinds of exploration of the future
are mentioned in the Sagas, which may be referred
to this class, namely, by means of sacred leaves or
slips (blotspdnn) and by prophetic lots (hlotar or
hlutar), both, doubtless, a species of lot-casting in
principle, but practiced by different modes.
To consult the Gods by the first-named species of
oracle was " at fella blotspdnn," i. e., to drop the
sacred leaves. Although this is very often men-
tioned in the old manuscripts, yet the details are nowhere
described. We must, therefore, be content
with probable conjectures to which the ancient
name, compared with descriptions of siniilar modes
of consulting the Gods among people nearly related
to the Northmen, may lead us.
The expression " at fella blotspann " seems to im-
ply that the exploration was effected by the casting
of consecrated sHps or pieces of wood.
"We find the casting of lots (Sortilegium, of the Eomans)
employed as a means of divination among
many of the nations of antiquity— ^the Greeks,
Eomans, Scythians> Alani, Germans, and others.
Of the mode of foretelling events by casting lots, as