CHAPTER XXXIX 

 THE DIVINING-ROD 



THE divining-rod, spoken of by the Romans as 

 "virgula divina," and mentioned by Cicero and 

 by Tacitus, was a different thing altogether from the 

 modern forked twig of the water-finder, and seems to be 

 of immemorial antiquity. Its use in " divination " was 

 similar to that practised with a ring or a sieve suspended 

 by a string. When the rod is thrown into the air and 

 falls to the ground, or when the suspended object is set 

 moving, it eventually comes to rest, and when thus at rest 

 must point in one particular direction. It was supposed 

 that gods or spirits invoked at the moment guided the 

 movement and final position of rest, so as to make the 

 divining-rod or ring or sieve point to buried treasure, to 

 an undetected murderer, or to a witch or wizard who had 

 used magic arts to injure the person seeking its aid. 

 Bits of stick are so used at the present day by some 

 savage races. The notion leading to its use is the same 

 as that which has led to augury by inspection of an 

 animal's entrails, by the flight of birds, and other such 

 varying appearances. The notion is that an unseen 

 protective power will, when properly invoked, interfere 

 with the blindly varying thing and make it vary so as 

 to give indications either of hidden objects or of future 

 events. The unseen power which thus revealed itself 

 was primitively supposed to be that of a god or a spirit. 



