haruspex

Cato, the Censor, is on record as saying "that he wondered how one haruspex could look another in the face without laughing!"

Whereupon, the store of haruspices and augurs that feed upon superstitious Rome were brought in—only to furnish mirth for the court and victims for Tiberius.

The altar had been erected, the swine sacrificed, and the augurs and haruspices on both sides had predicted nothing but amity and concord.

In ancient times, there would have been some official haruspex charged with picking over the entrails of a sacrificial offering ahead of any important occasion.

Even Cato,91 the leader of the orthodox, national, and conservative party, expressed his surprise that a haruspex, when meeting a colleague, did not burst out laughing.