[63] Casaubon, extracted from Dee's MSS., P. I., p. 22, fol. 1659. [64] _History of Lancashire_, vol. iv. p. 63. [65] Hampson's _Medii Ævi Kal._, vol. i. p. 74. [66] 33 Henry VIII., cap. 8. [67] "The Devils of Morzine," in the _Cornhill Magazine_, April, 1865. [68] See Roby's _Traditions of Lancashire_; Homerton's _Isles of Loch Awe_ and _Choice Notes: Folk-Lore_, pp. 247-8. [69] See _Transactions of Lancashire and Cheshire Historical Society_. [70] _Magna Britannica_, by Rev. M. S. Cox, p. 1303. [71] Baines's _Lancashire_. [72] Baines's _Lancashire_. DIVINATION. This word, derived from _divinare_, to foretell, denotes a mode of foretelling future events, and which, among the ancients, was divided into two kinds, natural and artificial. Natural divination was prophecy or prediction, the result of supposed inspiration or the divine afflatus; artificial divination was effected by certain rites, experiments, or observations, as by sacrifices, cakes, flour, wine, observation of entrails, flight of birds, lots, verses, omens, position of the stars, &c. In modern divination, two modes are in popular favour--thrusting a pin or a key between the leaves of a closed Bible, and taking the verse the pin or key touches as a direction or omen; and the divining-rod, a long forked branch or twig of hazel, which being held between the finger and thumb in a particular way, is said to turn of itself when held near the earth over any hidden treasure, precious metals, or over a spring of water. It has also been used to discover a buried body of one murdered. DIVINATION AT MARRIAGES. The following practices are very prevalent at marriages in the districts around Burnley, and they are not noticed in the last edition of Brand's _Popular Antiquities_:--1. Put a wedding-ring into the _posset_, and after serving it out, the unmarried person whose cup contains the ring will be the first of the company to be married. 2. Make a common flat cake of flour, water, currants, &c., and put therein a wedding-ring and a sixpence. When the company are about to retire on the wedding-day the cake must be broken, and distributed amongst the unmarried females. She who gets the ring in her portion of the cake will shortly be married, and the one who gets the sixpence will die an old maid.[73] DIVINATION BY BIBLE AND KEY.