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216 DIVINATION & AUGURY IN A MODERN LIGHT
to draw, the tongue and lips to give utterances, tie hand to draw a card or a lot; and if a man's movements, why uot also, a fortiori, a bird's, a beast's ? They can make a bird to fly across your path or a beast to bowl. But the spiritualists do more then this. They have definitely decided that these unseen intelligences are those of human spirits disincarnated, not necessarily dead, possibly severed, the form of a spirit-body or "double', from the flesh, temporarily, by a trance, abstraction, or deep slumber--but still human. This theory-if it can only once be accepted by an enquiring mind through some personal experience will throw another flood of clear light on the augural practices of the ancient Etruscans and Romans, and indeed of all the Semitic and Indo-European natians. If these beings are human, they would naturally continue to take an interest in their descendants, especially if these descendants kept up the old spirit that animated them, and, if these beings had a wider purview of the environment, it was worth while to consult their advice; hence every Roman family and Gens consulted the spirits of its ancestors; and the nation, going to war, did the same. When experience taught the diviners that these beings could influence movements of muscles and thoughts automatically, various codes were devised by which these spirits could communicate their ideas, and, as long as parties of both sides were aware of these codes, communications between the two words could be easily kept up. There is, perbaps, 10 reason in itself why a raven should be
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