Paper fortune teller

Parts of the fortune teller are labelled with colors or numbers that serve as options for a player to choose from, and on the inside are eight flaps, each concealing a message.

The person operating the fortune teller manipulates the device based on the choices made by the player, and finally one of the hidden messages is revealed.

[4][2] Instead of being used to tell fortunes, these shapes may be used as a pincer to play-act catching bugs such as lice, hence the "cootie catcher" name.

[6] As a salt cellar, the same shape stands on a table with the four points downwards; the four open pockets may be used to hold small pieces of food.

Origami historian David Mitchell has found many 19th-century European sources mentioning a paper "salt cellar" or "pepper pot" (the latter often folded slightly differently).

Mitchell also cites a 1907 Spanish publication describing a guessing game similar to the use of paper fortune tellers.