1935.50.4632
::
divinationsredskap, spådomsredskap

- Object description
"Skulderblad av får hemfört från Edsen-gol, på vilket med tusch markerats några typiska sprickor efter spådomsbränning. " (MLK)
Montell berättar: "In conformity to an ancient Mongolian custom we occasionally burnt a sheep´s bone in order to discover what the immediate future had in store for us. The shoulder of a newly-slaughtered sheep is boiled and anyone who wants to know his fate must then scrape it quite clean with a knife, but under no circumstances may he gnaw it. Incense is then thrown into the fire, the fortune-teller covers his head, numbles a prayer, whispers his question to the ball of the shoulder-blade, the so-called pot, waves it several times over the hearth and then places it in the fire.
Within a short space of time, when it is completely burnt and quite black, it is carefully lifted out of the fire with a pair of tongs. As it cools it cracks appear and it is these that the initiated fortune-teller can read. An upright comb called the back divides the shoulder-blade into two parts, a broad part called the cold side and a narrow part called the warm side. If a tranverse crack appears on the broadest part of the warm side it means good fortune; if the back is burnt by the neck the future will be bright. A ring round the neck is a very bad sign unless it is a matter of runaway cattle, for then the answer is favourable. As far as we were concerned there did not appear to be any great difficulties in our path, because the way ran clear and distinct from the cold side to the warm side." (Montell.1945. s. 381)
Teckning i HBE.











Leave a comment
Here you can leave a comment. You have to supply an e-mail, an alias and you have to accept the agreements.