Let Polly tell your future

Posted by noelbynature under Lifestyle
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Some read horoscopes. Others read tea leaves or palms. But if you walk through the streets of Singapore, you might be engage the services of a feathered friend to help you find out what’s in your future. How does a bird tell you your future? You tell it to pick a card, any card…

cc image by seeveearr

Victor writes more about this form of avian fortune telling:

So how does a little bird tell someone’s fortune? The bird has to be trained to pick out one card from a stack which is spread out on the table. So that it will not fly away, the bird probably had its wings clipped. Once it has mastered the skill of picking a card, the fortune teller can start picking a customer. When a fortune needs to be told, the bird is let out of the cage. It picks a card by pulling it out from the stack with its beak. Once it has done this seemingly simple task, it is promptly rewarded with a grain of seed or padi and its work is considered done. The bird voluntarily hops back into the cage, after which its master closes the cage gate. Now it is the fortune teller’s turn to spin his tale.

Parrot fortune tellers are an Indian tradition, although Victor says that some Chinese fortune tellers used birds as well - unfortunately they no longer seem to be around. Find out more about Singapore’s Parrot Fortune Tellers in A Little Bird Told Me.

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