Thanks for the welcome, Jackie, wwh and Max!

Jackie, listing "Hodcarrier" as my occupation is a reference to a Roald Dahl short story. I've never heard of anything but bricks or coal in a hod, but there may be other hods- it certainly sounds like a word that has a broader meaning, or at least once was more in use.

Is "osteomancy" too tame? I always pictured it involving the casting of small bones onto the ground and reading the patterns, and as an ancestor to dice throwing, but I can imagine far more gruesome methods of practicing osteomancy.

Phsychomancy, anthropomancy and spatulomancy, in ascending order of "no, thanks, you go ahead, I'll wait in the car..." value.

-CB