Human
victims are offered to appease their lust for blood. The famous
gladiatorial combats which the Romans adopted had their origin in
bloody sacrifices in honor of the dead.
=The Augurs.=--The Etruscans used to say that a little evil spirit
named Tages issued one day from a furrow and revealed to the people
assembled the secrets of divination. The Etruscan priests who called
themselves haruspices or augurs had rules for predicting the future.
They observed the entrails of victims, the thunderbolt, but
especially the flight of birds (whence their name "augurs"). The augur
at first with face turned to the north, holding a crooked staff in his
hand, describes a line which cuts the heavens in two sections; the
part to the right is favorable, to the left unfavorable. A second line
cutting the first at right angles, and others parallel to these form
in the heavens a square which was called the Temple. The augur
regarded the birds that flew in this square: some like the eagle have
a lucky significance; others like the owl presage evil.
The Etruscans predicted the future destiny of their own people.
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