The Lombards were a Germanic tribe which hung out for about a thousand years until the 11th Century. For a period of time, they ruled large parts of Italy, and the Lombardy region in northern Italy was named after them.
One of their greatest accomplishments was the perfection of the craft of kephalonomancy as a tool for criminal investigations--especially those involving theft. In a trial based on kephalonomancy, the accuser would take the head of a donkey (or sometimes a goat) and roast it on a bed of coals. The accuser would then read out loud a list of suspects while sprinkling carbon on the head of the animal. If the jaw of the animal appeared to move (or the skull cracked or a crackling sound erupted) during the reading of the name of a person, then that individual would be found guilty.
People have done some pretty sick things. Donkeys are very protective and cool animals.
ReplyDelete