Amniomancy
{{Short description|Method of divination}}
Amniomancy is a method of divination whereby the future life of a child is predicted from the caul covering their head at birth.{{Cite book | last = Pickover | first = Clifford A. | title = Dreaming the future: the fantastic story of prediction | publisher = Prometheus Books | year = 2001 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/dreamingfuturefa0000pick/page/70 70] | url = https://archive.org/details/dreamingfuturefa0000pick/page/70 | isbn = 1-57392-895-X | url-access = registration }}{{Cite book | last = Cunningham | first = Scott | title = Divination for beginners: reading the past, present & future | publisher = Llewellyn Worldwide | year = 2003 | pages = 203 | isbn = 0-7387-0384-2}} The colour and consistency of the caul are used to interpret the future. A vivid colour is supposed to reflect a vivid life whilst the opposite is also true.{{Cite book | last = Buckland | first = Raymond | title = The Fortune-Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying | publisher = Visible Ink Press | year = 2003 | pages = 16 | isbn = 1-57859-147-3}}
Amniomancy dates to at least the times of the Roman Empire.{{Cite book |last=Epstein |first=Randi Hutter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aOD8qPdDcoAC&dq=Amniomancy&pg=PR9 |title=Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank |date=2011-04-11 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-07990-6 |pages=ix |language=en}}
The word amniomancy comes from the Latin {{Lang|la|amnion}}, meaning membrane.{{Cite encyclopedia | title = Amniomancy | encyclopedia = The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World | pages = 21 | publisher = Harper Element | year = 2006 }} The French proverb {{Lang|fr|Il est ne coiffe}} is thought to originate from this practice.{{Cite book | title = The Recreative review, or Eccentricities of literature and life, Volume 2 | year = 1822 | pages = 138 }}