Anthropomancy

Anthropomancy (from the Greek: ἄνθρωπος, anthropos ["man"] + μαντεία, manteia ["divination, soothsaying"]), also referred to as splanchnomancy (from the Greek: σπλάκνα, splankhna ["viscera", "innards"] + μαντεία, manteía) is a method of divination conducted by the inspection and reading of the entrails of deceased or dying human beings, male or female, typically sacrifices for such purpose. On the subject, A. E. Waite in The Occult Sciences (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1891), p. 127, relates the following:

"From gross superstition divination occasionally passed to foul and revolting practices. Auguries were drawn from the examination of the entrails of disembowelled men and women; under the name of anthropomancy this rite is one of considerable antiquity. It is mentioned in Herodotus, who informs us that Menelaus, when detained in Egypt by contrary winds, sacrificed the native children to his barbarous curiosity, and sought in¬ formation on his destiny from the signs in their stomachs. The nature of the signs, and the manner of their interpretation, have, fortunately, not been recorded. Similar but unaccredited stories are narrated of Julian, the apostate, who, in his necromantic operations and nocturnal sacrifices, is said to have immolated many children in order to consult their intestines. When in his last expedition, he tarried at Carra, in Mesopotamia, he is affirmed to have retired, with some accomplices, into the Temple of the Moon, and, when their impious occupations were over, they left it locked and sealed with a guard round about it to keep away all comers till their return. Julian died, however, in the war, and when the temple was opened, in the reign of the Emperor Jovian, a woman was found hanging by her hair, her hands out-stretched, her stomach cut open, and the liver torn out. But the memory of the Emperor Julian has been calumniated by partisans, and the reports of his enemies should be received with uncommon caution."