Alectryomancy

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) Divination by means of a cock and grains of corn placed on the letters of the alphabet, the letters being put together in the order in which the grains were eaten.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

was a method of fortune-telling among the ancient Greeks by means of feeding fowls. The letters of the alphabet were placed in a circle, and upon each letter a grain of wheat was put. A cock was brought out, and the letters were carefully noted from which he took the wheat. Words were then construed from these letters.