Alphitomancy (from Greek: ἄλφιτον, romanized: alphiton, lit. 'barley', and μαντεία, manteia, 'divination') is a form of divination involving barley cakes or loaves of barley bread.1
When someone in a group was suspected of a crime, the members of the group would be fed barley cakes or slices of barley bread. Supposedly, the guilty party would get indigestion, while all others would feel well.2
References
References
- Luck, Georg (2006) [1985]. Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Reissued ed.). The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 495. ISBN 0-8018-8346-6.
- "Alphitomancy". the MYSTICA. Retrieved 3 August 2015.