Weekly Rites CCXIX from Clare Byrne on Vimeo.

I'm re-reading The White Goddess by Robert Graves. As part of his overall argument he quotes an ancient Irish bardic divinatory rite called Dichetal do Chennaib, or "recital from the finger ends:"

"...it is by the ends of his finger bones that the poet accomplishes the rite in this manner: when he sees the person or thing before him he makes a verse at once with his finger ends, or in his mind without studying, and composes and repeats at the same time."