of telling the future from the flight of birds in Classical Antiquity. The dove appears as an oracular animal in the story of Noah, and also in Thisbe in Boeotia there was a dove-oracle of Zeus. Animal imagery was also often employed in the oracular utterances in Ancient Greece (Lightfoot 2008, p. 237, fn. 105). Parrot astrology is a form of divination using green parakeets which originated in South India and is still practiced in modern times (Naidu Ratnala 2005). In Chinese traditional religion, the tortoise is an oracular animal. A popular North American tradition is Groundhog Day, in which on February 2 each year a groundhog is used to predict whether there will be an early spring. Notable oracular animals of the modern period include Lady Wonder, Punxsutawney Phil, Maggie the Monkey, Lazdeika the Crab, Paul the Octopus, and Sonny Wool. Shamanism and animals Animals were an important aspect of the Shaman religion in Central Asia. Also known as "assistant spirits," "guardian spirits," and "helping spirits," animal spirits are an integral part of a shaman's work. The more animal spirits a shaman had under his control, the more powerful the shaman (Waida, 1983, p. 228-229). When a shaman set out to journey spiritually to the outer world, animals were a key component, assisting him in his work. There were three primary reasons for a shaman to take such a journey: to find a lost soul, to bring an animal spirit to the high gods, or to lead a soul to its new resting place in the underworld. All of these were extremely important to followers of shamanism and animals were extremely important in facilitating the shaman's efforts (Waida, 1983, p. 231). An example of animal spirits in Shamanism comes from the Yenisei Ostiaks culture. During a healing procedure, a shaman invokes a number of animal spirits to help him. The spirits arrive and enter his body. The shaman is not possessed by these spirits; he is free to expel them at any time (Waida, 1983, p. 223). His body begins to leap all over the place, symbolizing that his soul is rising, leaving the earth and going up to the sky. It is a bird spirit that is lifting him through the atmosphere and he cries for it to take him higher so he can see further. According to Adolf Friedrich, at this point the shaman's essence has, in