[ad. med. or mod.L. spalulamancia, f. spatula shoulder-blade.] Divination by means of the shoulder-blade of an animal. (Cf. SPADE-BONE and SPEAL-BONE.)

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  In quot. 1652 there is app. some error or omission, as the explanation would more properly apply to *spatilomancy, f. Gr. σπατίλη excrement, parings of leather.

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1652.  Gaule, Magastrom., xix. 166. Spatalamancy, [divining] by skins, bones, excrement.

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1720.  De Foe, D. Campbell (1841), 241. If it be by consulting the shoulder-bones of any beast, it goes by the name of spatulamancy.

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1858.  in Archæologia Cambrensis, Ser. III. IV. 56. I who am learned in charms, in the thousand chances of spatulamancy, in the means of deceiving, in sorcery.

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1887.  Ribton-Turner, Vagrants & Vagrancy, 78. Spatulamancy … by reading the speal bone or the blade bone of a shoulder of mutton well scraped.

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