SH On the Virgula Dwtnaforia, 



among the molt intelligent practical miners in the county 

 who continue to believe in its virtue. The firft knowledge 

 tie procured of the rod was from a captain Rebeira, who de«* 

 ferted the Spanifh fervice in queen Ann's reignj and became 

 captain commandant of Plymouth gkfrHbri ; and as Cook- 

 worthy's veracity and abilities were unquestionable, and a» 

 it undeniably appears that he made many experiments with 

 the rod, it feems as if his aceount demands fome degree of 

 confidence. But the earlier writers who mention it, appear 

 to have fuppofed that its operation was the efle& of magic; 

 and thence the cutting of it was, according to their direc- 

 tions, to be attended by the utterance of certain cabaliftic 

 words and the performance of certain ceremonies : they di- 

 rected it to be cut on a certain clay, and at a certain hour, 

 from a tree of a certain defcription, before fun- rife, about 

 the day of the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, but efpe- 

 cially with an increafmg moon. It has, however, of later 

 times been agreed, that a forked hazle rod, or two it raight rods- 

 of one year's growth, being moft pliable, cut in the winter 

 and kept till they are dry, aniwer belt; or, if thefe be not at 

 hand, fuckers of the apple or currant-tree, or (hoots of the 

 peach-tree, willow, or oak, though green,, will do tolerably- 

 well, but thofe of the fruit-bearing trees are preferred. If the 

 rod be made of two feparate moots, they are tied together at 

 their larger ends with fome vegetable fubitancej and thefe r 

 it is laid, anfwer better than thole which grow forked, the 

 fhoots of which, being rarely of equal fize and length, do not 

 handle fo well. The length of the rod is from %\ to 3 feet. 



Upon a nice obfervation of the mode of holding the 

 rod, prefcribed by Cookwortb)^ much feems to depend. 

 Having, as has been obferved, tied the larger ends of the 

 fticks together, the imaller are to be held one in each 

 hand, with that part of it which is grafped by the hand 

 fo turned as to be brought parallel to the horizon, and the 

 tied ends pointing upwards at ai> elevation of about 70 de- 

 grees. The more ftrongly the rod is grafped, the livelier is 

 laid to be its action : but it is peculiarly neceflary to obfervc 

 that it be grafped fteadily and equally ; for if, when the 

 movement or attraction of the rod is commenced, there be 

 the leaft imaginable oppofition to it by a jerk, it will not 

 move anv more till the hands have been opened and a frefh 

 grafp taken. It appears that a due obfervance of this is of 

 much importance, and that the operation of the -rod has in 

 many inftances been defeated by a jerk or counter-acYion ; 

 and thence, fays Prycc, in his Mlncralogia Cormtbien/is, who 

 *vas " well convinced of its abfolute and imnroveable vir- 

 tues/* 



