DIVINATION IN THE DARROW LINE

The seer's gift runs in the Darrow family, presenting in one or two women per generation; Moira, Paige's mother, and Moira's sister Morag were the lucky ones. Darrow seers are trained by relatives and none has sought outside training in years, possibly even decades. Although techniques have varied, the last few generations depend on ichtyomancy: divination by fish. (More on ichtyomancy below.)

Where Muggle forecasts fail, Darrow predictions prevail. While being a seer for hire is no longer as lucrative as it once was, at least in St. Kilda, the Darrow women are still sought by plenty of townspeople and passers-through. Weather was always a specialty for the seers because the wards that keep St. Kilda on the edge of Muggle awareness also make the area's weather unpredictable, and everyone knows never to depend on Muggle-made forecasts.

It's impossible to divine whether or not a Darrow girl inherited the gift of the Sight. Of all the successful predictions her foremothers have made, none have ever been able to discern whether a fetus or child had received the trait. They have to wait until the child is older, because if a Darrow girl has the gift its first manifestation is always when puberty rears its ugly head.

All young Darrows are told about the basics of ichtyomancy, things like the hallmarks for simple predictions. But there's only so many ways you can clean a fish, and it takes training and learned skill to know how to separate "the intestine wrapped around the stomach when the entrails fell out, so the winds will be dangerous tonight" from "the intestine wrapped around the stomach when the entrails fell out because fish guts are slippery and that just happens sometimes."

When a Darrow girl finds out she has the Sight, news spreads fast. Both the family and their neighbours (and everyone in St. Kilda's a neighbour!) will know within a day. The family tradition for celebrating their girl's passage into womanhood, for the Sight is considered as much an indication of newfound womanhood as puberty is, is to throw a modest but earnest, and loud, ceilidh.


ICHTYOMANCY

Ichthyomancy is to divine by fish. The traditional Darrow method involves three stages: (1) to observe the fish in the water, their swimming patterns, and how the water responds to their movements, (2) to observe how the fish reacts to the fishing attempt, in which directions they evade and how quickly, and (3) to study the entrails when cleaning the fish.

Quick and dirty predictions can be made by only carrying out the third and most basic step but a prediction by entrails alone will never be as accurate or dependable as one made after observing the fish in the water.


THE FISH'S REMAINS

Darrows try never to waste a fish, one used for a prediction doubly so. Fish that provide fortuitous or neutral predictions are cooked and eaten either by the client, or by the seer and her family (if the prediction was not done for any specific person). Worrying predictions are not eaten, but the remains are always deposited in the family's compost heap because they claim that even to know something bad is a help, and the fish can at least contribute to future life in some way. Family legend claims that past seers incorporated specific spells into the disposal of the remains as a way to cleanse it before it feeds the garden, and thus the family, but all records and tangible accounts of what spells might have been used have been lost.

At Gooseberry, Paige brings the fish to the kitchens after every divination attempt so the house elves can make something tasty. They're probably going to get tired of fish soon. If she ever makes a worrying prediction using the entrails, she's going to ask Mr. Hightower if she can place it in the Gardens' compost.

Edited 2017-08-20 04:39 pm (UTC)

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