REACTION OF THE HORSE 223 



errors in computation and the poorly adjusted concentra- 

 tion of the questioner, were expressed. We recall the 

 difficulty in the case of very high numbers. This might 

 easily be considered as being due to the horse's ability to 

 work more readily with small, rather than with large 

 numbers, whereas, as a matter of fact, it was due solely 

 to the difficulty of the questioner to keep his attention 

 concentrated upon the number for so long a time. We 

 recall also the frequency of errors of one unit too few 

 and one unit too many. These were easily interpreted as 

 miscounts on the part of Hans, but in truth were the re- 



of the users of the divining rod seems to have been restricted to the 

 search for metals. The first (or one of the first) to raise his voice 

 against it was the learned G. Agricola 1"^ (15^6), and after him there 

 were many who all wrote more or less independently of one another. 

 Aside from swindle and chance, it was usually believed that sorcery of 

 the agency of Beelzebub was involved, and for that reason the Church 

 has repeatedly forbidden the use of the divining-rod. But even in the 

 17th century we find some who believed that it was imagination alone 

 that moved the person's hand, and with it the rod, '"', i"* (" fortassis 

 etiam phantasia manum in motum concitante ") ; and that points out 

 the essentials of the solution of the phenomenon, and we will not go 

 into the matter here in detail. A number of complex psychological 

 problems arising in connection with it are still waiting to be solved, but 

 this much appears certain ; the staff or branch plays no other part in the 

 whole process than that which is served by the three levers in the tests 

 described in Chapter IV (pages 116 ff.), — they simply magnify the ex- 

 pressive movements of the diviner. And so we can understand why 

 the instruments serving as rod might be so varied. Hay-forks, pickets, 

 clock-springs and pendulums, scissors and pliers have been used. A 

 knife and fork or two pipes, fastened together, an open book, and even 

 a sausage, grasped at both ends and thus bent together somewhat, — 

 all have served the purpose equally well. We can understand, too, how 

 some adepts are able to achieve the same degree of success-r-for they 

 do succeed beyond a doubt — ^without any rod whatever, but simply by 

 placing the index fingers end to end and bending them somewhat, and 

 even by merely groping about with hands outstretched or folded before 

 them.'is 



