HISTORY
Divining by animals is an old practice. The ancient Babylonians, whose empire had flourished from about 1900 B.C.E. to 1595 B.C.E., had a variation of alectryomancy, only they used cattle. In the Babylonian version, water was splashed three times on a sleeping ox’s head (yeah, imagine somebody waking you up that way). Doubtless through a process of trial-and-error, the Babylonians arrived at a list of seventeen possible reactions by the animal to any questions put to it, and each possible response had its own meaning. I was only able to find three responses and their meaning:
-If both eyes opened and remained open, the answer to the question was yes.
-If only one eye opened and remained open, the answer was maybe.
-If both eyes remained closed, the answer was either no, or no answer could be rendered at this time.
No word on what it mean if the animal bellowed and tried to attack the humans who so rudely woke it up, but common sense says that response would’ve been an omen of disaster.
The Babylonians were conquered by the Hittites, who flourished in Asia Minor and Syria from 1600 B.C.E. to 1200 C.E. The Hittites also had a form of alectryomancy, only they practiced theirs by observing the movements of movements of an eel in a tank of water. No word on what eel-movements meant what.
Evidence indicates the ancient Etruscans also practiced alectryomancy (approximately from 900 B.C.E. to 400 B.C.E.), using actual chickens to pick out letters from their 20-letter alphabet.
The Zande tribe in Africa practice a form of alectryomancy, using ants. Two long, thin leaves are inserted into an ant hill and the ants’ behavior is observed. If they consume the leaf on the left first, the answer is yes. If they consume the leaf on the right first, the answer is no.
The Dogon tribe in western Africa practice a form of alectryomancy in the following way. At nightfall, a design is drawn in the dust and nuts are strewn in and around the design, then everybody goes to bed. In the morning, the seers, or tribal wisemen/wisewomen return to inspect the design. They observe any paw prints left in the dust in and around the design, made by animals who came during the night to eat the nuts. If any nuts were left, they probably note that too.