Alphitomancy (from, and) is a form of divination involving barley cakes or loaves of barley bread.[1]
When someone in a group was suspected of a crime, the members of the group would be fed barley cakes or slices of barley bread. Supposedly, the guilty party would get indigestion, while all others would feel well.[2]
. Georg Luck . Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds . The Johns Hopkins University Press . 1985 . Reissued . 2006 . 495 . 0-8018-8346-6 .