Sc. and north. [For dial. speal-bane, var. spule-bane: see SPULE.] The shoulder-blade, esp. as used in a method of divination.
Pennant is the chief source of later instances.
1771. Pennant, Tour Scot. 1769, 154. There is another sort of divination, called Sleinanachd, or reading the speal-bone, or the blade-bone of a shoulder of mutton well scraped.
1802. Sibbald, Chron. S. P., Gloss. s.v. Spald, ‘Reading the speal or spule-bane,’ antiently a common mode of divination.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 113. A proper English term for it is ‘reading the speal-bone.’
