[308.3] Middleton, _Works_ (2nd ed. London, 1755), vol. v., p. 153, citing “Hist. Raven., etc. Aring [hus], Rom[a] Subt[erranea], l. vi., c. 48.” [309.1] _Early Trav._, 158. The casting of lots is divination--an appeal to supernatural powers to decide the event. Such divination (frequently glossed as the ballot) took place at the election of Matthias to succeed Judas Iscariot in the apostolate (Acts i. 23). It seems to have been a not uncommon practice in the Middle Ages for the election of ecclesiastical dignitaries. It is expressly reprehended in a tract _De decem præceptis_, published in the year 1439, by Thomas Ebendorfer of Haselbach, Court Chaplain and Privy Councillor of the Emperor Frederick III (_Zeit. des Vereins_, xii. 11). [309.2] The church derived its name from having been erected in a Lombard burial-ground. Poles were set up on the graves, and on each pole the wooden figure of a dove. It is suggestive that the scene of the story is placed in such surroundings. [310.1] Paulus Diaconus, _Gesta Longobard._, vi. 55. See also Soldan, 145, 148. Hildeprand did not reign long. He was deprived of the throne a few months later by Ratchis, who reigned for five years, 744-749. [310.2] Soldan, 150. [310.3] Post, _Afr. Juris._, i. 138, citing Harris, _The Highlands of Ethiopia_. Post notes that Krapf contests the accuracy of this account and states the succession was hereditary. The two statements are perhaps not irreconcilable. The succession to the throne of Businza, south of Lake Victoria Nyanza, was hereditary, but among the candidates an animal omen was decisive. Father van Thiel, who says this, however, omits to tell us exactly how (_Anthropos_, vi. 502). See also, as to other tribes, below, pp. 317 _sqq._ [311.1] Herod., iii. 84 _sqq._ [311.2] Grimm has collected instances, _Teut. Myth._, i. 47; ii. 658; iv. 1301, 1481. Also von Negelein, _Zeits. des Ver._, xi. 406 _sqq._ [312.1] _Journ. Ind. Archip._, iii. 316. [313.1] Forbes, ii. 465. [313.2] Plutarch, _De Fluv._, xiv. [315.1] Huc, ii. 343; i. 278; Waddell, 245 _sqq._ [316.1] Gray, i. 103. [317.1] Speke, _Journ._, 221. A less astonishing species of augury, and one reminding us of English Hallowe’en practices, is that adopted by the Shilluk on the Upper Nile. On choosing a king a small stone for everyone of the royal princes is thrown into the fire. The stones of the rejected candidates fly out again; he whose stone remains in the fire becomes king (_Anthropos_, v. 333). [318.1] _Anthropos_, vi. 70. [319.1] _Records of the Past_, 2nd series [1891] v. 68, 62. [320.1] _Folk-Lore_, ix. 114. Mr Crooke does not refer to the speech of Eurymachus immediately following that of Telemachus, which confirms what has been said on this subject by Antinous and Telemachus.