Among the Kamtchatkans, if a child has been born in stormy weather, they believe that to be a bad omen, and that the child will cause storm and rain wherever it goes. As soon as it is grown and can speak, they purify it, and appease heaven by the following method: During a most violent storm of wind and rain, the child is compelled to walk naked, holding a cup or shell of Mytues high above its head, around the ostrag and all balagans and dog huts, and to say the following prayer to Billukai and his Kamuli: “Gsaulga, set yourselves down and stop urinating or storming; this shell is used to salty but not to sweet water; you make me very wet, and I almost freeze to death; besides, I have no clothing; see how I tremble.”—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.) Divination by urine seems to have been superseded by holy water in a “chrystall.” Scot, speaking of the latter mode, says: “They take a glass vial, full of holy water, ... on the mouth of the vial or urinall,” etc.—(“Discoverie,” p. 188.) There is among children in the United States and England, and possibly on the continent of Europe as well, a superstition to the effect that the one who plucks the dandelion will become addicted to the habit of urinating in bed during sleep. The author has been unable to trace the origin of the curious notion or to obtain any explanation of it. “Leontodon. Dandelion. Children that eat it in the evening experience its diuretic effects in the night, which is the reason that other European nations as well as the British vulgarly call it piss-a-bed.”—(Encyclopædia, Philadelphia, Penn., 1797, article “Leontodon.”) “The following compendious new way of magical divination, which we find so humorously described in Butler’s ‘Hudibras’ as follows, is affirmed by M. Le Blanc, in his ‘Travels,’ to be used in the East Indies:— “‘Your modern Indian magician Makes but a hole in th’ earth to pisse in, And straight resolves all questions by it, And seldom fails to be in th’ right.’” (Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” vol. iii. p. 331, article “Divination.”) Cicero makes no mention of a method of divination by excrement, although, as shown by the references from the “Bib. Scat.” and from Ducange, such methods must have been in vogue. The Kamtchatkans believe that “if they ease nature during sleep, it signifies guests of their nation.”—(Steller, translated by Bunnemeyer.) Montfaucon says that the Roman Haruspices “observed in the beasts that were sacrificed not only the entrails in general, but also the gall and bladder in particular.”—(“L’Antiquité expliquée,” lib. i. part 1, cap. 6.) See extract from Gilder’s “Schwatka’s Search,” under “Mortuary Ceremonies,” p. 262. See “Witchcraft,” “Amulets and Talismans,” “Urinoscopy,” “Virginity,” “Sterility,” “Courtship and Marriage,” “Childbirth.” XXXVI. ORDEALS AND PUNISHMENTS, TERRESTRIAL AND SUPERNAL.