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headlifting
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
n.
among certain Eskimo shamans, a method of divining the future by lifting the suppliant's head as if weighing it.
Quotations
1922
[. . . she asked me to let her divine by lifting my head . . . Higilak slipped her belt round my head, and told me to close my eyes. Then they both questioned me, and Higilak lifted my head from time to time for the answers. The whole ceremony lasted perhaps a quarter of an hour.]
1956
Sometimes they [Eskimo] tried to foretell the future by a curious form of fortune telling, known as head-lifting.