In those days, when a man wanted an egg he waited for the hen to announce the coming of her product. This made the animal mystical in that it could tell the future - and that led to what became know as the "hen oracles."

If you lived back then, and wanted to receive an answer to an important question from those oracles, you would draw a circle on the ground and divide it into the twenty-four letters of the alphaet. Grains of corn were placed in each section, and the cock or hen was led into the circle and then set free. It was believed that the fowl would spell out words or sumbol by picking up kernels of corn frmo different sections. For example, the first letter of a future husband's name would be the first kernel of corn picked. After writing the message, the fowl was sacrificed to a special deity and its collarbone was hung to dry.

Then you'd get to make a wish on that bone. Then two other people got a chance to make a wish by snapping the dried bone in the same way we do now, with each pulling on an end. The person with the larger end of the bone got the wish - and it beame know as a "lucky break."

The Romans brought the wishbone tradition with them when they conquered England, and that's how we got it.

(PS: Who will win the wishbone in your family this Thanksgiving?)
Found on the Butterball web page, story according to the "Knock on Wood" by Carol Potter

More Bits 'N' Pieces about real horses in the October newsletter.
More Holiday Bits in the December newsletter.

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