On Sep 4, 2010, at 9:08 AM, Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello wrote:
A complicated word, SCRY ( crystalomancy), appears in Nabokov, if I'm not mistaken. It's related to "giant components" by Steward.
Jansy
Scry occurs in Eliot's Dry Salvages:
V
To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits, To report the behaviour of the sea monster, Describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry, Observe disease in signatures, evoke Biography from the wrinkles of the palm And tragedy from fingers; release omens By sortilege, or tea leaves, riddle the inevitable With playing cards, fiddle with pentagrams Or barbituric acids, or dissect The recurrent image into pre-conscious terrors- To explore the womb, or tomb, or dreams; all these are usual Pastimes and drugs, and features of the press: And always will be, some of them especially When there is distress of nations and perplexity, Whether on the shores of Asia, or in the Edgware Road.
scry(skr)
intr.v.scried(skrd), scry·ing, scries(skrz)
To see or predict the future by means of a crystal ball.