the art of divination by means of a sieve. The word comes from κοσκίνιον, cribrum, "a sieve," and κατανα, divination. The sieve being suspended, after rehearsing a formula of words, it is taken between two fingers only; and the names of the parties suspected repeated: he at whose name the sieve turns, trembles, or shakes, is reputed guilty of the evil in question.

This must be a very ancient practice: Theocritus, in his third Idyllion, mentions a woman very skilful in it. It was sometimes also practised by suspending the sieve by a thread, or fixing it to the points of a pair of sheers, giving it room to turn, and naming, as before, the parties suspected; in which last manner coscinomancy is still practised in some parts of England. It appears from Theocritus, that it was not only used to find out persons unknown, but also to discover the secrets of those that were known.

Vol. VI. Part II.