[313.1] Forbes, ii. 465.
[313.2] Plutarch, De Fluv., xiv.
[315.1] Huc, ii. 343; i. 278; Waddell, 245 sqq.
[316.1] Gray, i. 103.
[317.1] Speke, Journ., 221. A less astonishing species of augury, and one reminding us of English Hallowe’en practices, is that adopted by the Shilluk on the Upper Nile. On choosing a king a small stone for everyone of the royal princes is thrown into the fire. The stones of the rejected candidates fly out again; he whose stone remains in the fire becomes king (Anthropos, v. 333).
[318.1] Anthropos, vi. 70.
[319.1] Records of the Past, 2nd series [1891] v. 68, 62.
[320.1] Folk-Lore, ix. 114. Mr Crooke does not refer to the speech of Eurymachus immediately following that of Telemachus, which confirms what has been said on this subject by Antinous and Telemachus.
[321.1] I am indebted to Miss Burne for suggesting that something like this is the true interpretation of the use alike of the Lia Fáil and of the various regal paraphernalia employed in the stories. As she puts it, they would know their rightful owner. This, however, is to assume the principle of heredity as already established. The animistic belief involved in the interpretation suggested was perhaps applied even before then.
[323.1] Girald. Cambr., Itinerarium Kambriæ, l. i., c. 2.