TJSE OP THE DIVINING ROD. 65 



escape the effect of his failures by trying the chair alone. Of 

 course he obtained the turning over as he wished it; he then 

 maintained that there were nails in the chair. "We all examined 

 it but there was nothing of the sort. 



Our friend, the foreman, now getting warmly interested, 

 arranged a little experiment of his own while we were talking to 

 the discomfited diviner. Going into the taproom (for we were in 

 the village inn) he borrowed the hats of seven men and laid them 

 on a bench in the passage or hall, putting some pence under one 

 of them. The whole tap-room attended as audience. This time 

 the poor diviner was utterly puzzled, and could not decide for a 

 long period, though he went along the series over and over again. 

 In the meanwhile as a fresh bystander dropped in they would 

 lift up the hat to show how many pence there were, and this when 

 the diviner's back was only half turned, l^o care was taken to 

 replace the hat in the same position, they were too simple to 

 think of such a thing The dowser might have found out at 

 once the right hat by this means. Then again, when he came 

 over where the money was, the rustics got excited and stared 

 hard at the hat and the rod, so that he had only to glance at 

 their faces to get the hints he wanted. This is a good illustration 

 of the circumstances under which these men got their reputations. 



After trying over and over again for about ten minutes, and 

 getting indications at several wrong hats, at last he pitched on the 

 right one, having obtained the clue he wanted. One of us had 

 already left the place, considering him to have quite broken down 

 again. 



We have gone somewhat into detail, for it is only by observa- 

 tion of all the circumstances that these deceptions can be exposed; 

 though we put our own interpretation on them. 



There seems to us no mystery in the matter, — there is as much 

 deception here as was ever practised by the medicine-man of 

 savage tribes. 



"We maintain that the diviner showed a voluntary movement 

 of the hands ; we tried to imitate him ; after a few trials we 



