Resemblances between human and animal features 45 Porta's and Lavater's Views 45-48 Study of Human Physiognomy based on birth-omens 49-50 Birth-omens in Julius Obsequens 50-52 Birth-omens in Valerius Maximus 52 Cicero on birth-omens 53-54 Macrobius on birth-omens 55 Birth-omens among Greeks and in Asia Minor 56-58 Birth-omens as basis of belief in fabulous and hybrid beings 59-62 Dragons, Hippocentaurs and hybrid creatures in Babylonian-Assyrian Literature and Art 63-64 Fabulous creatures of Greek Mythology and Birth-omens 64-66 Egyptian sphinxes 67-70 Totemism 70 Metamorphosis of human beings into animals and vice versa 70-72 Talking animals in fairy tales 71 History of monsters and persistency of belief in monsters 72-78 Lycosthenes' work 73-75 Summary 78-80 Index 81-86 "... they do observe unfather'd heirs and loathly births of natures" (King Henry V. 2nd part Act IV, 4, 121-122). I As a result of researches in the field of Babylonian-Assyrian divination, now extending over a number of years[1], it may be definitely said that apart from the large class of miscellaneous omens[2], the Babylonians and Assyrians developed chiefly three methods of divination into more or less elaborate systems--divination through the inspection of the liver of a sacrificial animal or Hepatoscopy, through the observation of the movements in the heavens or Astrology, (chiefly directed to the moon and the planets but also to the sun and the prominent stars and constellations), and through the observance of signs noted at birth in infants and the young of animals or Birth-omens. Elsewhere[3], I have suggested a general division of the various forms of divination methods into two classes, voluntary and involuntary divination, meaning by the former the case in which a sign is deliberately selected and then observed, by the latter where the sign is not of your own choice but forced upon your attention and calling for an interpretation. Hepatoscopy falls within the former category[4], Astrology and Birth-omens in the latter.