a kind of divination performed by the throwing of dice, and observing the points or marks turned up. The word comes from ἀκρος, lot, and μαντεία, divination. At Bura, a city of Achaia, there were a temple and celebrated oracle of Hercules, where such as consulted the oracle, after praying to the idol, threw four dice, from the points of which, when well scanned, the priest was supposed to derive an answer or response. Something of this kind seems to have been practised with regard to Jonah.