TO CONSTANTINOPLE. 107 
sented with a hag of money in his hand, as chap. 
a god of thieves \ The divining rod was the >*— v ' 
most antient superstitious practice resorted 
to in the discovery of precious metals. The 
use of it was left in Cormvall by the Phoenicians ; 
and down to a very late period, we find it 
called by its antient name, Caduceus^. Indeed, 
some of the representations of Mercury upon 
antient vases are actually taken from the 
scenic exhibitions of the G?-ecian theatre : and 
that these exhibitions were also the prototypes 
of the modern pantomime, requires no other 
confirmation than a reference to one of them, 
taken from D' Hancarville, and engraved for 
this work; where Mercury, Momus, and a 
Female Figure, are delineated exactly as the 
story of Jupiter and Alcmena was burlesqued 
upon the Grecian, and as we see Harlequin, the 
Cloivn, and Columbine, upon the English stage'. 
The Greek physician, from whom the medals ^°^^ of 
practising 
we bought here were principally obtained, Physic in 
Turkey. 
(1) See Ti^ne^e to preceding Chapter; representing the symbols of 
Hermes, as they are exhibited upon a terra-cotta lamp, taken from Passeri. 
(2) " Les ouuriers qui beschent la mine dedens terre, et qui tirent a 
niont, n'ont point I'usage de Caducee, qui en Latin est nomme Virga 
(livina, dont les Almans vsent en espiant les veines." Belon, Obscrvat. 
en Grece, f. 45. Paris, 1555. 
. (3) See the Vignette to this Chapter. 
