Augury

Augury is an ancient form of divination or fortune-telling. particularly associated with the ancient Romans who would "augur" or "take the auspices" in order to predict the future or tell someone's fortune. They would do this by watching the flights of birds or the shape and condition of cow livers and use these to predict the future. This was an interesting and mysterious way of attempting to see into the future which we all now know was not based on scientific fact rather than superstitious beliefs.