抄録
There are two types of divination by means of birds in Ancient Mesopotamia. The first one is auspicium, namely the practise of divining the future by the observation of the flight and behaviour of birds. We have more than 350 kinds of such omina in texts of relatively good condition.
As to the relation between protases and apodoses in these omina, we can find out at least three principles which explain the reason why a positive apodosis results from a certain protasis, and a negative from another:
1. principle of metaphor; an example: “if a falcon puts a raven to death the king will win over his enemy” because the falcon is compared to the king, and his enemy to the raven.
2. principle of association; an example: the appearance of a black (gi6) bird wakes an association of an eclipse (an. gi6) in the future.
3. principle of the dichotomy of space; an example: the existence of a falcon at the right side of a man divines a favourable future for him, while the same falcon at the left side means a malicious one.
Several protases which seem extremely unlikely to happen in reality must be interpreted as the products of the imagination.
The second type is concerned with the physical peculialities of sacrificial birds. There has been a discussion among scholars about “a bird” (mušen=issuru) in certain types of ominous texts. Owing to the courtesy of Mrs. G. A. Matheson, the Keeper of Manuscripts of the John Rylands Library (Manchester), we published here one more late OB text of such a type which reports the observation of “a bird”.
