Sunday, December 31, 2017

A German NYE tradition - divining the future by molten lead


We used to do this in Germany. The lead came formed into the shape of common objects, a bit like the old Monopoly player pieces. The result was always a frazzled lump in the bottom of the washing up bowl.

Started in Greece with tin-smelting, they say - so maybe dates back to the Bronze Age?

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molybdomancy.

1 comment:

  1. Paddington31 December 2017 at 23:57

    Playing with lead and mercury didn't do us any harm!

    ReplyDelete

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