I just learned of a medieval counterpart to the modern Magic 8-Ball and the pulling flower petals “He loves me not” thing.
Tyromancy.
Cheese divination.
I thought it was a joke, but apparently people actually did this – reading the number of holes / patterns of mold etc like other fortune-tellers read tea leaves.
Also, young’uns would try to discover the name of their future spouse by writing potential names on different pieces of cheese, and the one that grew mold first was considered right.
And people would ask general questions of the cheese, write possible answers on pieces, then put them all in a cage with a hungry mouse, and whichever was eaten first was true.
…None of this should surprise me, since it fits in with other things that humanity has done to Find Answers From Chaos, but somehow cheese lacks dignity.
(That and the fact that “tyromancy” sounds like the magic of kings, or maybe the magical control of T-rexes.)
What do you mean, ‘Cheese lacks dignity’. Of all the dairy products, cheese is without doubt the most dignified. And telling the future from cheese? It makes complete sense to me.
