(Aside): Hogwarts curriculum
dungrollin
spotthedungbeetle at hotmail.com
Mon Sep 6 23:55:06 UTC 2004
No: HPFGUIDX 112226
Out of interest, was anyone else surprised about Hermione liking
Arithmancy? It is, actually, (despite not being in my Chambers
English Dictionary) a real word. I have in front of me The
Wordsworth Book of Intriguing Words, and in the chapter '-omancy
fancy' (the literary forms of fortune-telling) it is listed under
miscellaneous.
After the way she disparaged Trelawney's classes are we to be led to
believe that divination by numbers is more _accurate_ than other
forms? - and is that why it appeals to Miss Granger? Why is
Arithmancy not part of the divination syllabus? Why does it merit
an entire subject on its own?
I think we should be told!
Dungrollin.
(Just for fun, some of the more unusual ones are:
Name Divination by...
Rhapsodomancy Picking a passage of poetry at random
Podomancy Signs derived from inspection of the feet
Xenomancy Studying the first stranger that appears
Omphalomancy The navel
Dririmancy Dripping blood
Cromnyomancy Onions (?!)
Coscinomancy The turning of a sieve held on a pair of
shears (whatever that's supposed to mean...)
Ailuromancy The way a cat jumps
Aichomancy Sharply pointed objects
And my personal favourite (which _is_ in my Chambers English
Dictionary):
Tyromancy Watching cheese coagulate)
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