1To auspices and the casting of lots they pay as much attention as anyone. 1The procedure of the lots is simple. 1They cut a branch from a fruit-bearing tree into slips, and these, marked out by certain signs, they scatter at random and by chance over a white cloth. 2Then, if the consultation is public, the priest of the state, but if private, the father of the family himself, after praying to the gods and looking up to the sky, picks up three slips one at a time, and interprets those he has picked up according to the sign previously stamped on them. 3If they have forbidden it, there is no consultation about the same matter on the same day; 3but if it has been permitted, confirmation by auspices is still required.
3And it is known here too, indeed, to question the cries and flight of birds: but it is peculiar to this race to test also the presages and warnings of horses. 4These are kept at public expense in those same woods and groves, white and untouched by any mortal labour; 4they are yoked to a sacred chariot, and the priest and the king or chief of the state walk beside them and observe their neighing and snorting. 5Nor is greater trust placed in any auspice, not only among the common people but among the nobles and among the priests; 5for they consider themselves the servants of the gods, but the horses their confidants.
5There is also another way of taking auspices, by which they explore the outcome of serious wars. 6A captive from the people with whom there is war, caught by any means, they set to fight with a chosen man of their own countrymen, each in his native arms: the victory of the one or the other is taken as a foreshadowing.