THE CHALDEAN PRACTICE OF LIVER-READING.

The practice of liver-reading by means of augury was a rite of major importance among the ancient Chaldeans. It was undertaken for the purpose of determining what the heavenly entities had in mind. This was absolute distinct from predestination by astrology.
The favorite method of augury among the ancient Chaldeans was the examination of the liver of a slaughtered animal. It was thought that when an animal was offered up in sacrifice to a heavenly entity that the deity identified himself for the time being with the animal, and the beast thus afforded a means of indicating the wishes of the heavenly entity. The soul of the animal became the soul of the god, therefore if the signs of the liver of the sacrificed animal cold be read, the mind of the deity became clear, and his intentions regarding any matter were known.
Among the Chaldeans the common belief was that the soul was almost invariable resided in the liver instead of in the heart or brain. The liver was, in fact, supposed to be the fountain of the flesh, the blood supply, and therefore the fountain of life itself.
More blood is secreted by the liver than by any other organ in the body, and upon the opening of a carcass the liver appears as the most striking organ, the most central, and the most sanguinary of the vital parts.
The animal usually sacrificed was a sheep without blemish, the liver of which is the most complicated in appearance among the animal kingdom. The two lower lobes are sharply divided from one another and are separated from the upper by a narrow depression, and the whole surface is covered with markings and fissures, lines and curves which give to the liver much the appearance of a map on which roads and valleys are outlined. This apply to the fleshy excised liver only, and these markings are never the same in any two livers.
Certain priests were set apart for the practice of liver-reading, and these priests were exceedingly experts, being able to decipher the signs with great skill. The manner of slaughtering the sheep and the examination of its liver was done with the most meticulous care. They first examined the gall-bladder, which might be reduced or swollen. They inferred various circumstances from the several ducts and the shapes and sizes of the lobes and their appendices. Sometimes the signs were doubtful, and upon such occasions a second sheep was sacrificed. Diseases of the liver, too, particularly common among sheep in all countries, were even more frequent among these animals in the marshy portions of the Euphrates Valley.
The literature connected with the augury is very extensive, and Assur-Bani-Pal's library contained thousands of fragments describing the omens deduced from the practice. These enumerated the chief appearances of the liver, as the shade of the color of the gall, the length of the ducts, and so forth.
The lobes were divided into sections, lower, medial, and higher, and the interpretation varied from the phenomena therein observed. The markings of the liver possessed various names, such as "palaces," "weapons," "paths," and "feet." Peculiar signs, when they were found connected with events of importance, were specially noted  and handed down from generation to generation of readers.
Later in the progress of the art the various combinations of signs came to be known so well, and there were so many cuneiform texts in existence which afforded instruction in them. The liver-reading is a very complicated art in its deeper significance.
One of the earliest instances on record of liver-reading is that regarding Naram-Sin, who consulted a sheep's liver before declaring war. Sargon did likewise, and Gudea is found too applying to his liver inspectors when attempting to discover a favorable time for laying the foundations of the temple of Nin-Girsu. Throughout the whole history of Babylonian monarchy in fact, from its early beginnings to its end, we find this system in vogue.