Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AX-I-NOM'AN-CY, n. [Gr. αξινη, an ax, and μαντεια, divination.]

Among the ancients, a species of divination, by means of an ax or hatchet, performed by laying an agate-stone on a red hot hatchet, or by fixing a hatchet on a round stake, so as to be poised; then the names of those suspected were repeated, and he at whose name the hatchet moved, was pronounced guilty. – Encyc.