[866] Περὶ ὠμοπλατοσκοπίας καὶ οἰωνοσκοπίας, § 1.
[867] Λαμπρίδης, Ζαγοριακά, p. 210. No details are given.
[868] Λαμπρίδης, Ζαγοριακά, p. 176.
[869] The writer does not actually mention the two things in connexion. He belongs to that class of modern Greek writers who exhibit their own intellectual emancipation by deploring or deriding popular superstitions, and wastes so much energy therein that he fails to note such points of interest. But, since it is not probable that the peasants of Epirus eat meat more often than other Greek peasants, the connexion of the sacrifice and the divination may, I think, be assumed.
[870] Certain details of the art as practised in Macedonia are given by Abbott, Macedonian Folklore, p. 96. But, as they may in part be due to Albanian influence there, I have not made use of them.
[871] Περὶ ὠμοπλατοσκοπίας κ.τ.λ. l. c.
[872] Reading ἄλλα γὰρ for ἀλλὰ γὰρ of Codex Vindobonensis, as published in Philologus, 1853, p. 166.
[873] The word is ῥάχις. This in relation to the body generally means the ‘spine,’ but can be used of any ridge (as of a hill), and so here, I suppose, of the ridge of bone along the shoulder-blade.
[874] So I understand the somewhat obscure sentence, εἰ μὲν γὰρ μεταξὺ τοῦ ὠμοπλάτου δύο ὑμένες ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων μερῶν τῆς ῥάχεως κ.τ.λ., conjecturing οἱ before μεταξὺ, where Codex Vindob. has corruptly εἰ.
[875] Prom. Vinct. 493.