7. t3'^?iO?, Kasdim' (Sept XoX^otot; Vulg. ChaL dcB%). Here, says Cicero (De Div, i, 1), we have a class " so named, not ttom their art, but from tiieir nation.** But only a section of the nation, the learned caste : "the dominant race,** sa3r8 Ernest B^nan, ** who gave their ^ame, though only a minority, as the Turics elsewhere, to the mass of the population, which differ- ed from them in descent*' {Histoire des langues Sknit- iques, p. 67, 68). They are mentioned by Herodotus (i, 181) as a sacerdotal caste. Cicero, L c, notices their devotion to astrology, and " their working out a science by which could be predicted what was to hap- pen to each individual, and to what fate he was bom.** Diodoms Siculus, after Ctesias, assigns the same office at Babylon to the Chaldsums as the priests bore in Egypt {Hist, ii, 29). Juvenal (Sat. vi, 552) and Hor- ace (Carm. i, xi) refer to the ChaldaDan divination. The prophet Isaiah (xlvii, 12, 18) mentions several de- tails of it in terms which we have already described. How the same appellation, Q^^t79, came to designate both the military and the learned classes of Babylon (comp. 2 Kings xxiv, 5, 10, etc., with Dan. ii, 2), and how conflicting are the views of the modem learned as to the origin of the Chaldssans, see R^nan, I, c, and Sir H. Rawlinson, in note of Bawlin8on*s Herod, i, 819. See also Chaldjban.
8. One name more (occurring in Dan. ii, 27; iv, 4; and V, 7, 11) remains to be noticed descriptive of the saoans of Babylon— 'j'^'nt J, gaterin^ (Sept. Taliaprjvoi ; Vulg. aruspices ; A. Y. *' soothsayers* '). Gesenins and Rosenmttller agree in deriving this word from ^t^, g€uar^, to divide, cut up, etc ; but tiiey differ in the ap- plication of th^idea, the former making it mean the heavens divided into astrological sections (of which he gives a diagram in his Comm, gu Jes. iii, 555) ; the lat- ter {Schol, in Daniel, 11. cc.) supposing it to refer to the
DIVINATION
836
DIVISION
diyision and iDBpection of the entraUs of victims by arutpices: both these kinds of divination have been described above. Others refer to Josephns {Wctr^ vi, 5, 8) for astronomical portents snchas the gaterin would interpret (see also St. Augost. De Dodr. Christ, ii, 82, etc.). Jerome, in his Commenictry in loc, de- fends liis own version, anupioety by the authority of Symmachns. The Sept. and Theodotion translate the word rdCaptivo^t aa if it were a proper noun, like D'^^U^S, Chaldaans. See Soothsatbb.
9. In Hoeea iv, 12, we read, ** My people ask coun- sel at their stocks (or toood, bKIZT S:C9^) ; and thehr Btoff declareth unto them" (T^ft^ ^^Ir^)* Those who hold thai" two separate prognostications are here re- ferred to, generally make the former a consultation of wooden idols, or ieraphun, which has already been treated (see Boeenmtiller and Pococke, m loc). Jere- miah reproaches the Jews for *' saying to a itock ()^?), My Father" (U, 27) ; and Habakkuk, '' Woe unto him that saith to t^ioootf()^9). Awake" (ii, 19). ButPo- cock (on Hosea iv, 12) gives reasons for supposing that only one sort of superstition is meant in this verse, namely, rhabdomancy (papdofiavTua)^ divination by staves or rods. Many kinds of this are on record. Maimonides {Pnecept, neg, 81) mentions the practice of ^^ taking a staff and striking the ground with it, and maldng horrid noises, while the diviners would stand in a reverie, intently looldng on the ground, till they became like men struck with epileptic fits ; when re- duced to this frenzy they would utter their prophe- cy." The learned Rabbi says he saw such a case him- self in Barbaiy. Chaskuni (quoted by Drusins on Deut. xviii, 10) adduces another method by which **the diviner measures his staff with his finger or his hand: one time he says ItoiUgo; another time, /trtff not go ; then, if it happens at the end of the staff to be / vnU not go, he goes not.'* Rabbi Moses Mikkotzi Qn Pococke, I, c.) mentions a divination by a piece of stic^, peeled on one side, which, thrown aftr out of the hand, decided a doubt, according as the peeled or unpeeled side fell uppermost. Tacitus (Germ, z) describes a similar prognostication among the' Germans. Th&- ophylact, after Cyril, on this passage of Hosea, men- tions the use of two rods, set upright, with enchant- ments and muttering of verses. " The rods," says he, *' felling through the influence of dssmons, suggested answers to inquirers, according as they fell to the right or to the left, forward or backward.** Staves were sometimes carried about as the shrines of deities, says Festus. Tibullus (/. EUg, xi, 16) refers to these mod- em deities. In allusion to the same superstition, Clement of Alexandria (Strom, i, 151) mentions cer- tain tubes OM the thrinis ofdeUies (comp. Euseb. Prop, Evang. i, 9). Another explanation is that the posi- tive or negative answer to the required question was decided by the equal or unequal number of spctns in the staff (Gk)dwyn, L c). Parallels are found among the Scythians (Herod, iv, 67, and Schol. Nicandri, 2ifi>- Oca fivptKiv<ft fMVTfvovrat ^vX^i), Persians (Strabo, XV, p. 847), Assyrians (Athen. Deipn, xii, 7), Chinese (Stavorinus's Java ; Pinkerton, xi, 182), and New Zea- landers (called Niu, Taylor's New Zealand, p. 91). These kinds of divination are expressly forbidden in the Koran, and are called al Meisar (ch. v, Sale's iVe- Um, Dissert, p. 89). Herodotus (vii, 11) describes the Alani women as gathering and searching anxiously for very smooth and straight wands to be used in this superstitious manner. Sir J. Chardin says it b com- mon in India for diviners to accompany conquerors, to point out where treasures may be found ; and he adduces a case at Surat: when Sira^ went thither, he made his soothsayers use divining rods, struck on the ground, or on walls, etc. Harmer (ii, 282) supposes a reference to such a practice may be implied in Isa. xlv, 8 (see St. Chrysostom, Opera fed. Bened.], xi, 518,