Men not only attempt to act directly upon nature, but they usually exhibit a keen desire to be guided as to the best course to take when in doubt, difficulty, or danger, and to be forewarned of the future. The practice of =divination= is by no means confined to professional magicians, or even to soothsayers, but any one may employ the accessory means. Any object may be used in divination: thus in Europe, as in Torres Straits (29, v. 361), a stick may be dropped to indicate a direction to be taken; or coins may be spun or dice thrown. Divination by means of skulls was common in Torres Straits (29, v. 362); in this case the spirit of the dead person was supposed to give the required advice. Haruspication, or divination by means of certain viscera, was largely employed by the Romans, and I have several times seen a pig’s liver used in Borneo for the same purpose (28, 336, 354). In these instances the message, as indicated by the state of the particular viscus, was obtained from a deity. Other examples and varieties of divination are given by Tylor (71, i. 123). V. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MAGIC Magic may be employed for public purposes or for private ends. In the former case it is almost invariably for the public weal, in the latter it is most frequently nefarious. A. Public Magic. Among some totemic peoples the men of a totem group perform magical ceremonies for the benefit of the community. The best examples of this =communal magic=, as it might be termed, are those described by Messrs. Baldwin Spencer and Gillen (64, 179-183) as practised by the Arunta tribe of Central Australia at the =intichiuma= ceremonies. For example, the headman of a local group of the Emu totem and some other Emu men opened a vein and allowed their blood to stream on a patch of smooth ground, until about three yards were saturated. On the hard surface of the clotted blood the sacred design of the Emu totem was painted with white, yellow, red, and black. It represented certain parts of the emu; two large patches of yellow indicated lumps of fat, of which the natives are very fond, but the greater part represented, by means of circles and circular patches, the eggs in various states of development, some before and some after laying. Various sinuous lines indicated parts of the intestine. Throughout the ceremony the headman was treated with the greatest deference, and no one spoke to him except in a whisper. The sacred wooden slabs (_churinga_) were placed on one side of the painting. In the intervals of a monotonous chant the headman explained the drawing. Three men wore a headdress which represented the long neck and small head of the emu; with a curious gliding movement they approached the spectators, occasionally stopping and moving only their heads, imitating the aimless gazing about of the bird.