Fig. 10 79




PREFACE

It is somewhat curious that among the great number of books on occult
science and all forms of divination which have been published in the
English language there should be none dealing exclusively with the
Tea-cup Reading and the Art of Telling Fortunes by the Tea-leaves:
notwithstanding that it is one of the most common forms of divination
practised by the peasants of Scotland and by village fortune-tellers
in all parts of this country. In many of the cheaper handbooks to
Fortune-telling by Cards or in other ways only brief references to the
Tea-cup method are given; but only too evidently by writers who are
merely acquainted with it by hearsay and have not made a study of it for
themselves.

This is probably because the Reading of the Tea-cups affords but little
opportunity to the Seer of extracting money from credulous folk; a
reason why it was never adopted by the gypsy soothsayers, who preferred
the more obviously lucrative methods of crossing the palm with gold or
silver, or of charging a fee for manipulating a pack of playing-cards.

Reading the Cup is essentially a domestic form of Fortune-telling to be
practised at home, and with success by anyone who will take the trouble
to master the simple rules laid down in these pages: and it is in the
hope that it will provide a basis for much innocent and inexpensive
amusement and recreation round the tea-table at home, as well as for