ntent with doing his best by these regular means to secure the favour
of the gods, but wished before undertaking any business of importance
to be able to assure himself of their approval. His practical
common-sense evolved, as it were, a complete 'code'--in the flight and
song of birds, in the direction of the lightning-flash, in the conduct
of men and animals--by which he believed that the gods communicated to
him their intentions: sometimes these indications (_auspicia_) might be
vouchsafed by the gods unasked (_oblativa_), sometimes they would be
given in answer to request (_impetrativa_): but as to their meaning,
there could be no doubt, provided they were interpreted by one skilled
in the lore and tradition of augury. We may observe here, though our
evidence is much slighter, the same three stages which we have noticed
in the sacrificial worship, the homely domestic auspices, the auguries
of the agricultural life, and the organised system in the state.

In the household the use of auspices was in origin at any rate very
general indeed: 'Nothing,' Cicero tells us, 'of importance used to be
undertaken unless with the sanction of the auspices' (_auspicato_). The
right of interrogating the will of the gods, rested, as one might
expect, with the master of the house, assisted no doubt by the private
augur as the repository of lore and the interpreter of what the master
saw. But of the details of domestic augury we know but little. Cato in
one passage insists on the extreme importance of silence for the
purpose, and Festus suggests that this was secured by the master of the
house rising in the depths of the night to inspect the heavens. We have
seen already that the taking of the auspices played an important part
in the ceremonies of betrothal and marriage, and that the indications
of the divine will might be very varied we may gather from a story in
Cicero. An aunt wishing to take the auspices for her niece's betrothal,
conducted her into an open consecrated space (_sacellum_) and sat down
on the stool of augury (_sella_) with her niece standing at her side.
After a while the girl tired and asked her aunt to give her a little of
the stool: the aunt replied, 'My child, I give up my seat to you':
nothing further happened and this answer turned out in fact to be the
auspicious sign: the aunt died, the niece married the widower and so
became mistress of the house.

Of augury in agricultural life we have some indication in th