Kurumi's hand shot up. Being born and raised in Japan did offer her a few advantages when it came to various forms of Asian Divination. She would have to write her grandmother and say thank you for all the times the woman rambled and make Kurumi practice with her. "Professor, Chien Tung, or as I grew up calling it Kau Cim, is a fortune telling practice that originated in China. My grandmother often told me that the practice is very personal method not as a fortune-telling game for self amusement, but as a naturally based, historically practiced, and religious art." She explained beginning to take on the speech patterns of her 80-year-old grandmother. "You first think of a question, or if you just want a general reading, just shake the bamboo container until one stick falls out. On the stick there is usually a number written, so you look up that number which will lead to a single piece of paper with an answer. Well, that is the basic principle anyway. There are more steps if you want to verify the reading." Kurumi put her hand down as she was growing a bit tired from having it raised. "These special containers holding the fortune telling sticks are located at all the shrines in my neighbor in Japan. I used to ask them for advice often..." She blushed.

Hmm, Chien Tung, that sounded familiar and then it hit her and Chloe raised her hand and responded, "I believe with Chien Tung you think of a question and then shake the bamboo container till one stick falls out. On that stick there should be number that you corrospond with a small booklet of fortunes to get your fortune and from there it is up to you to determine what that means in corrospondance with your question.", Yes that was a rather long explanation but she was pretty dure she did it right nonetheless.

Wasn't there some rule about teachers insulting students? Because Sakura was sure that the professor was suggesting she was lazy. She wasn't, she was just very conscious about making sure she wasn't making mistakes, a calculator certainly allowed her to double check that.

"Kau cim is the art of fortune telling. It's practiced mainly by the Taoists and Buddhists. Generally the person who wants their fortune read will praise a main God before they take a cup, known as a Cim Bucket, with the Kau Cim sticks inside, in their hands, tipping it forward slightly. The querant than has to focus on a question that they want the deity to answer, whispering it while shaking the cup gently until a stick falls out, if more than one falls out you need to start again. All the sticks have a number on them in both arabic and chinese numerals. The person asking the question will look at the number on the stick and then they need to find the corresponding piece of paper upon which an answer is written. To double check that the answer is correct two jiaobei blocks will be tossed by the questioner. The blocks have a flat side and a round side, if the answer is correct one will land on the flat side and the other will land on the round side." Sakura said in answer to the question the professor had asked. She was sure she'd been pretty thorough in her answer.

So, Emmaleigh found herself lost in arithmancy once again. She sighed, and actually began to doodle on her parchment as she thought. If Arithmancy had something to do with divination, then maybe she could guess. Raising her hand, she asked, "Is it kinda like Tarot cards, where each stick has a different meaning?"

Ohh, the professor seemed pretty excited to hear Sierra's answer. Either that, or she just really, really liked using tally marks. Sierra couldn't imagine showing too much excitement over either, but meh...if it meant more credit for her, then so be be it. She smiled politely at the professor before sort of tuning out whatever else was said directly afterward. Something about divination of numbers or something confusing along those lines.

She did, however, refocus her attention on the discussion when the professor directed another question toward the class. Chien Tung--now that was something Sierra knew just a little about. Enough to form an answer to the question, at least. Lifting her hand into the air, she said, "Well, you start with lots of sticks inside a container. All the sticks are numbered, and when you end up shaking one out, you figure out the meaning of the number on that stick," she said.

o________O

She had NO clue what they were on about... pickup sticks... Wang Chung... whatever it was. Not wanting to show her obvious ignorance, Lexi simply remained silent and nodded her head here and there and scribbled some notes down on her parchment.

Best bet.

Caroline raised her hand. " Chien Tung is similiar to fortune cookies. Its sticks in a cup or container amarked with the discreet Chinese character that is used to symbolize spiritual blessings. The sticks are numbered. There are 64 sticks. You ask a question, thank about your question. You shake the cup until one of the sticks fall out from it. The stick that falls out will have a number that corresponds to a highly thought provoking poem with a meaning or fortune."

"I agree, Professor." Lexie gave a small sigh of relief, having not make a fool out of herself by babbling nonsense. Then again, she was at Hogwarts. You'd never know when 'nonsense' will come in handy.

Lexie took out a bit of crumpled parchment and a quill and began taking down notes as Professor Hadley explained about Arithmancy. Divination... of... numbers... It doesn't sound all that interesting when you put it that way. She frowned.

Chinese... The word triggered a memory in Lexie's head as she started to recall bits of her holiday in China the previous year. She shot up her hand.

"Professor, Chien Tung is an ancient method of fortune telling. I know it as Kau Cim, because that was what the monk called it when I was at a Chinese temple in China last year. He put sticks in a cylindrical container and began to shake the container at a tilted angle till one fell out. I remember getting a number 18 on my stick but I can't... really... remember.. what.. it.. means.." Lexie furrowed her brow in thought. "Well, the point is, the number corresponds to a prediction written down on paper," she ended.

Hahaha. He actually felt like laughing now, he was entirely LOST. Well, not entirely, he just had no idea what Hadley was talking about. The only words he was familiar with, besides 'numbers', was 'divination' and 'fortune', but he didn't believe any of that had anything to do with Arithmancy.

Treyen was glad Arya was writing everything down, since he didn't even know what to write on his parchment.

Emily smiled as her answer of abacus was accepted, she then listened as the Professor adressed the class. Chien Tung... thought Emily. She had heard of it before... perhaps even read about it.
"It is also known as Kau Cim, and is practised by using a cup containing seventy-eight sticks. Each of these sticks is numbered. You use these by asking it a question, and focusing on the question, you hold the cylinder in your palms and shake it until one of the sticks falls out. Then the number on the stick corresponds to a meaning thus giving you the key to the answer, interpretations may vary."

A class that was educational in terms of mathematics, divination, and cultures. Eino liked that. Too bad the only way in which he ever used sticks was as a pretend wand before he got his real one or as a sword to fight imaginary dragons. Yes, even the most ferocious of dragons couldn't defeat Eino the Thirteenth Hidden Unknown Knight of the Round Table and the Most Powerful One of them All and also Merlin's Number One Apprentice. He fought with a fake wand and fake sword. BEHOLD! There is no one in the entire land of Camelot with the power and wisdom as Eino the Thirteenth Hidden Unknown Knight of the Round Table and the Most Powerful One of them All and also Merlin's Number One Apprentice!!! Swish and swash! No one could outmatch him in a sword duel! No man, no beast! Never had there been one with suck impeccable and formidable swordsmanship as Eino the Thirteenth Hidden Unknown Knight of the Round Table and the Most Powerful One of them All and also Merlin's Number One Apprentice! And he got all the flan he ever wanted! Oh, right. Arithmancy. Sticks. "Professor," he began with his hand raised. "Are we allowed to make our own sticks or do we have to use specific ones?"

"Not exactly..." Josephina said with a sigh. Nope, it was related to pick up sticks, but didn't have anything to do with the way they laid when you put them in a pile.

"Very good, Jacob. You recognized that the word Chinese was in it... Which China is in Asia," Josephina grinned at the boy, thought inwardly amused. Oh how the boy made her lessons interesting. "But no... I don't think we'll be having Asian food..." Unless the house elves decided to surprise her.

"Yes, sort of like tarot cards... You all are getting closer," she said, as she looked around the class again. Surely someone knew a bit of Chinese muggle folklore, right?

Ah! Finally!! About five students spoke up and gave rather in-depth descriptions of the game. "Couldn't have explained it better myself, so thank to all of you and I do hope the rest of you," she glanced around at the other students, "were paying attention. Now as I said before, we're going to be playing a slight variation of the game. But before we get started, let's do a quick review of the characteristics of the numbers one through nine. Please feel free to tell me something you know about one of those numbers and try not to repeat what has been said."

Hmm... what was that Eino asked? "For the actual game, Mr Uronen, you're supposed to use specific sticks, but for this particular lesson, I do think that is a fabulous idea having you each decorate your own stick!"

The young girl nodded as the professor spoke to her. So she had guessed wrong, atleast she was closer than others. Dipping her quill in the ink, she began writing some of the key points down. When she heard the next question, she flipped through some of her notes from last term, and raised her hand. "The number four has to do with safety and caution."

Evelyn had noooo idea what this supposed game was they were talking about. Just that it had to do with sticks? Well, that was pretty boring. Unless, you got to light the sticks on fire at the end, then that SOOO wasn't boring.

However, she did write down what the actual game was, since, apparently they'll be playing it. Eh.

Well, here was something more that she understood. Numbers. Not the weird game that she couldn't remember the name of. "The number nine represents a more spiritual side then the other numbers as well as being a number of completion." she said, after raising her hand of course. It was still the 'old' number in her mind too. Teehee.

"The number 8 is the number of power, money, and success," Kurumi said after her hand shot up in the air.

Yay! They were going to decorate their very own magical fortune telling sticks. At this rate, Eino the Thirteenth Hidden Unknown Knight of the Round Table and the Most Powerful One of them All and also Merlin's Number One Apprentice in all Camelot would become he Thirteenth Hidden Unknown Knight of the Round Table and the Most Powerful One of them All and also Merlin's Number One Apprentice and Most Magnificent Soothsayer in all Camelot. Double yay! But onto equally exciting things "The number one is the number of individuality, independence, focus and determination." He participated with his hand raised.

Oh boy, Jaina thought, this is NOT going well at all. At least she got to decorate some sticks. That would be pretty cool. "13 is supposed to be unlucky." she hoped that was right.

Luin smiled then thought on it, "That sounds pretty much right, it is a bit odd to try to describe. It's kinda just each number kind of colored blob or sphere and they would combine. Each color is distinctive to each number, although many of them are mixes of the other numbers."

Luin quickly wrote down in her notes what Chien Tung/Chinese Fortune Sticks were, and then thought about what limited knowledge she had of it. She had never really looked much into it herself before but she thought she remembered hearing about one of the meaning of the numbers once before. Something her dad or mom had said at one point. She spent a bit thinking about it as some of the other students gave answers and then raised her hand, "The limits of human memory capacity lie within the range of 7 +/- 2. Seven is also the only number below 15 that cannot be represented as a sum of the squares of three integers."

Caroline raised her hand "Number 5 is about being cautious in your plans because they can easily go" Or at least it was something like that she couldn't remember to well. but it was something along those lines.

"The number three is about self expression," Jamie said raising her hand.

"The number two represents connecting, so things like relationships in all of our lives. It's energy tends to be harmonious and the number is often linked with femininity so it's really no surprise that when one looks at the Tarot the equivalent of the number two is the High Priestess," Sakura offered. She figured the professor wanted them to tell her not only something they knew about the numbers, but something they knew about the numbers that related to Arithmancy.

Satine wrote down in her notes each of the numbers and then wrote out beside them everyone added about each one. She raised her hand, "Professor, the number eight has to deal with karma." she said confidently as she hurried to catch up with her notes on the numbers....man the other students were on the ball today.

Chloe thought about the question and then said, "I believe one represents independance. Taking on whatever you are asking assistance for on your own. Taking the initiative to lead your own adventure to solve your problem".

Emily thought for a moment then raised her hand.
"I think the number 7 has something to do with wisdom and logic."
And mystery. A lot of that seemed to happen at Hogwarts.
And 7 was her lucky number! AND they were gonna decorate sticks?!?! Best. Lesson. Ever!

Listening to each of the students, Josephina nodded as they all seemed to have a good grasp of the numbers one through nine. Except for one ... Who seemed to have head off someplace else? Or filled with pixie dust? Something of the sort . . .

"13 is actually one of those numbers that could be lucky or unlucky. It all depends on your beliefs, but Miss Maloney, I do believe I asked about the numbers one through nine only." She said, smiling at the young girl. Ah, she was only a first year ... So it was all well and good at this age. Now if in a couple years she was still doing the same thing, then it might be a concern.


Walking toward the front corner, Josephina dragged a medium-sized box toward the center of the room. "Before we begin our activity, I want us, per Mister Uronen's suggestion," Or at least she'd let him think it was his idea and she hadn't been planning it before. It was just coincidence, the box, really. "To come up and select one of these sticks and use your wands to decorate them with a single meaningful number. This could be your life path number, destiny number, or some other number that you find significant in your lives. If you want help calculating one of these core numbers I mentioned, please feel free to ask myself or one of your classmates. Feel free to use a flashing Paint Charm, colour changing charm, or any other charm you see fit for your decorating."

So why were they still sitting? "You may come up now and select your sticks and begin decorating. Careful though." She said, as she herself took a few steps away. Last thing she wanted was a barrage of students coming at her...


ooc reminders: Just a reminder that I should have made awhile ago: NO EDITING! It's in my rules and pretty much every class has that rule. Don't do it. I'd rather have you make another post and then I'll merge if necessary, but please DO NOT EDIT.

* Have fun with this; you have until about Noon EST (5pm GMT) to get this done [before I'll begin the next task]; so about 24 hours
* Feel free to make a graphic to show the final product with your character's decorations. Or if you don't do graphics, being descriptive with words is fine too =).
* Minimum three posts for full credit on this task.