Alphitomancy

Alphitomancy a kind of divination (q.v.) performed with barley, first among the pagans, and from them introduced among Christians. A person suspected of crime was brought before a priest, who made him swallow a piece of barley-cake; if this was done without difficulty, he was declared to be innocent; otherwise, not. — Delrio, Disq. Magic, lib. 4, cap. 11; Landon, Eccl. Dict. s.v.