THE WIZARDRY OF THE DIVINING ROD
Washington Irving was so thoroughly versed in the lore of buried
treasure that the necromancy of the divining rod, as a potent aid to
this kind of industry, had received his studious attention. For many
centuries, the magic wand of hazel, or various other woods, has been
used, and implicitly believed in, as a guide to the whereabouts of
secrets hidden underground, whether of running water, veins of metal,
or buried treasure. There is nothing far-fetched, or contrary to the
fact, in the lively picture of Dr. Knipperhausen, that experienced
magician, who helped Wolfert Webber seek the treasure concealed by
pirates on the Manhattan Island of the Knickerbocker Dutch of the
"Tales of a Traveler."
"He had passed some years of his youth among the Harz mountains of
Germany, and had derived much valuable instruction from the miners,
touching the mode of seeking treasure buried in the earth. He had
prosecuted his studies also under a traveling sage who united the
mysteries of medicine with magic and legerdemain. His mind therefore
had become stored with all kinds of mystic lore; he had dabbled a
little in astrology, alchemy, divination; knew how to detect stolen
money, and to tell where springs of water lay hidden; in a word, by the
dark nature of his knowledge he had acquired the name of the
High-German-Doctor, which is pretty nearly equivalent to that of
necromancer.
"The doctor had often heard rumors of treasure being buried in various
parts of the island, and had long been anxious to get on the traces of
it. No sooner were Wolfert's waking and sleeping vagaries confided to
him, than he beheld in them confirmed symptoms of a case of money
digging, and lost no time in probing it to the bottom. Wolfert had
long been sorely oppressed in mind by the golden secret, and as a
family physician is a kind of father confessor, he was glad of any
opportunity of unburdening himself. So far from curing, the doctor
caught the malady from his patient. The circumstances unfolded to him
awakened all his cupidity; he had not a doubt of money being buried
somewhere in the neighborhood of the mysterious crosses and offered to
join Wolfert in the search.
"He informed him that much secrecy and caution must be observed in
enterprises of this kind; that money is only to be digged for at night;
with certain forms and ceremonies, and burning of drugs; the repeating
of mystic words, and above all, that the seekers must first be provided
with a divining rod, which had the wonderful property of pointing to
the very spot on the surface of the earth under which treasure lay
hidden. As the doctor had given much of his mind to these matters, he
charged himself with all the necessary preparations, and, as the
quarter of the moon was propitious, he undertook to have the divining
rod ready by a certain night.
"Wolfert's heart leaped with joy at having met with so learned and able
a coadjutor. Everything went on secretly, but swimmingly. The doctor
had many consultations with his patient, and the good woman of the
household lauded the comforting effect of his visits. In the meantime
the wonderful divining rod, that great key to nature's secrets, was
duly prepared.
"The following note was found appended to this passage in the
handwriting of Mr. Knickerbocker. 'There has been much written against
the divining rod by those light minds who are ever ready to scoff at
the mysteries of nature; but I fully join with Dr. Knipperhausen in
giving it my faith. I shall not insist upon its efficacy in
discovering the concealment of stolen goods, the boundary stones of
fields, the traces of robbers and murderers, or even the existence of
subterranean springs and streams of water; albeit, I think these
properties not to be readily discredited; but of its potency in
discovering veins of precious metal, and hidden sums of money and
jewels, I have not the least doubt. Some said that the rod turned only
in the hands of persons who had been born in particular months of the
year; hence astrologers had recourse to planetary influences when they
would procure a talisman. Others declared that the properties of the
rod were either an effect of chance or the fraud of the holder, or the
work of the devil...."
The worthy and learned Mr. Knickerbocker might have gone on to quote
authorities by the dozen. This weighty argument of his is not
delivered with a wink to the reader. He is engaged in no solemn
foolery. If one desires to find pirates' gold, it is really essential
to believe in the divining rod and devoutly obey its magic messages.
This is proven to the hilt by that very scholarly Abbe Le Lorrain de
Vallemont of France whose exhaustive volume was published in 1693 with
the title of _La Physique Occulte_, or "Treatise on the Divining Rod
and its Uses for the Discovery of Springs of Water, Metallic Veins,
Hidden Treasure, Thieves, and Escaped Murderers." In his preface he
politely sneers at those scholars who consider the study of the
divining rod as an idle pursuit and shows proper vexation toward the
ignorance and prejudice which are hostile to such researches.
The author then indicates that the action of the divining rod is to be
explained by the theory of Corpuscular Philosophy,[1] and by way of
concrete argument, refers to the most famous case in the ancient annals
of this art.
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[Illustration: Methods of manipulating the diving rod to find buried
treasure. (_From La Physique Occulte, first edition, 1596_.)]
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"It seems to me that my work would have been incomplete, had I not
_seen_ Jacques Aymar, and that the objection might have been raised
that I had only argued about statements not generally accepted. This
now famous man came to Paris on January 21st, 1693. I saw him two or
three hours a day for nearly a month, and my readers may rest assured
that during that time I examined him very closely. It is a positive
fact that the divining rod turned in his hands in the direction of
springs of water, precious metals, thieves, and escaped murderers. He
does not know why. If he knew the physical cause, and had sufficient
intellect to reason about it, I am convinced that, whenever he
undertook an experiment he would succeed. But a peasant who can
neither read nor write will know still less about _atmosphere, volume,
motion of corpuscles distributed in the air, etc_. He is still more
ignorant as to how these _corpuscles_ can be disturbed and cease to
produce the motion and dip of the rod. Neither is he capable of
recognizing how essential to success it is for him to know whether he
is in a fit condition to be susceptible to the action of the
_corpuscles_ which are thrown off from the objects toward which the rod
inclines."
"I do not deny that there are cheats who profess belief in the rod, and
put it to too many uses, just as quacks, with a good remedy for a
special ailment, hold themselves up to contempt by wishing to palm it
off as a cure-all. To this I add that people will be found who,
endowed with greater and more delicate sensibility, will possess still
more abundantly than he (Jacques Aymar) the faculty of discovering
springs of water, metallic veins, and hidden treasure, as well as
thieves and escaped murderers. We have already received tidings from
Lyons of a youth of eighteen, who surpasses by a long way Jacques
Aymar. And anyone can see in Paris to-day, at the residence of Mons.
Geoffrey, late sheriff of that city, a young man who discovers gold
buried underground by experiencing violent tremors the moment that he
walks over it."
M. de Vallemont has no sympathy for those credulous students of natural
philosophy who have brought the science into disrepute. They will
scoff at the divining rod and yet swallow the grossest frauds without
so much as blinking. He proceeds to give an illustration, and it will
bear translating because surely it unfolds a unique yarn of buried
treasure and has all the charm of novelty.
"Upon this subject there is nothing more entertaining than that which
took place at the end of the last century, with regard to a boy who
journeyed through several towns exhibiting a golden tooth which he
declared had grown in the usual way.
"In the year 1595, towards Easter, a rumor spread that there was in the
village of Weildorst in Silesia, Bohemia, a child seven years of age
who had lost all his teeth, and that in the place of the last molar a
gold tooth had appeared. No story ever created such a stir. Scholars
took it up. In a short time, doctors and philosophers came forward to
gain knowledge and to pass judgment, as though it were a case worthy of
their consideration. The first to distinguish himself was _Jacobus
Horstius_, Professor of Medicine in the University of Helmstad. This
doctor, in a paper which he caused to be printed, demonstrated that
this golden tooth was partly a work of nature and partly miraculous;
and he declared that in whatever light one viewed it, it was manifestly
a consolation sent from above to the Christians of Bohemia, on whom the
Turks were then inflicting the worst barbarities.
"_Martinus Rulandus_ published simultaneously with Horstius the story
of the golden tooth. It is true that two years later _Johannes
Ingolsteterus_ refuted the story of Rulandus, but the latter in the
same year, 1597, not in the least discouraged, defended his work
against the attacks of Ingolsteterus.
"_Andreas Libavius_ then entered the lists, and published a book in
which he recounted what had been said for and against the golden tooth.
This gave rise to great disputes concerning a matter which ultimately
proved to be a somewhat clumsy deception. The child was taken to
Breslau, where everybody hastened to see so wonderful a novelty. They
brought him before a number of doctors, assembled in great perplexity
to examine the famous golden tooth. Amongst them was _Christophorus
Rhumbaumius_, a professor of medicine, who was most anxious to see
before believing.
"First of all, a goldsmith, wishing to satisfy himself that the tooth
was of gold, applied to it his touch-stone, and the line left on the
stone appeared, to the naked eye, to be in real gold, but on the
application of aqua fortis to this line, every trace disappeared, and a
part of the swindle was exposed. Christophorus Khumbaumius, an
intelligent and skillful man, on examining the tooth more closely,
perceived in it a little hole, and, inserting a probe, found that it
was simply a sheet of copper probably washed with gold. He could with
ease have removed the copper covering had not the trickster, who was
taking the child from town to town, opposed it, complaining bitterly of
the injury that was being done him by thus depriving him of the chance
of taking money from the curious and the credulous.
"The swindler and child disappeared, and no one knows to this day
exactly what became of them. But because learned men have been duped
now and then, that is no reason for perpetual doubt.... and although
the story of the golden tooth be false, we should be wrong capriciously
to reject that of the hazel rod which has become so famous."
Having extinguished the skeptics, as one snuffs a candle, by means of
this admirable tale of the golden tooth, the learned author asserts
that "it must denote great ignorance of France, and even of books,
never to have heard of the divining rod. For I can say with certainty
that I have met quite by chance, both in Paris and the provinces, more
than fifty persons who have used this simple instrument in order to
find water, precious metals and hidden treasure, and in whose hands it
has actually turned. 'It is more reasonable,' says Father Malebranche,
'to believe one man who says, _I have seen_, than a million others who
talk at random.'
"It is somewhat difficult to determine exactly the period at which the
divining rod first came into use. I have discovered no reference to it
by writers previous to the middle of the Fifteenth century. It is
frequently referred to in the Testament de Basile Valentin, a
Benedictine monk who flourished about 1490,[2] and I observe that he
speaks of it in a way which might lead one to suppose that the use of
this rod was known before that period.
"Might we venture to advance the theory that the Divine Rod was known
and used nearly two thousand years ago?[3] Are we to count for naught
Cicero's illusion to divination by means of the rod, at the end of the
first book of his 'De Officiis,' 'If all that we need for our
nourishment and clothing comes to us, as people say, by means of some
divine rod, then each of us should relinquish public affairs and devote
all his time to the study.'
"Varro, according to Vetranius Maurus, left a satire called 'Virgula
Divina,' which was often quoted by Nonius Marcellus in his book
entitled _de Proprietate sermonum_. But what serves to convince me
that Cicero had in his mind the hazel twig, and that it was known at
that period, is the passage he quotes from Ennius, in the first half of
his 'De Divinatione,' in which the poet, scoffing at those who for a
drachma profess to teach the art of discovering hidden treasure, says
to them, 'I will give it you with pleasure, but it will be paid out of
the treasure found according to your method.'"
And so this seventeenth century Frenchman, his manner as wise as a
tree-full of owls, drones along from one musty authority to another in
defense of the mystic powers of the divining rod. He marshals them in
batteries of heavy artillery--names of scholars and alleged scientists
who made a great noise in their far-off times when the world was
younger and more given to wonderment. The discussions that raged among
those Dry-as-dusts have interest to-day because the doctrine of the
divining rod is still vigorously alive and its rites are practiced in
every civilized country. Call it what you will, a curiously surviving
superstition or a natural mystery, the "dowser" with his forked twig of
hazel or willow still commands a large following of believers and his
services are sought, in hundreds of instances every year, to discover
springs of water and hidden treasure. Learned societies have not done
with debating the case, and the literature of the phenomenon is in
process of making. No one, however, has contributed more formidable
ammunition than M. de Vallemont, who could discharge such broadsides as
this:
"Father Roberti, who writes in the strongest terms against the divining
rod, nevertheless admits, in the heat of the conflict, that the
indications on which the most scholarly of men set to work to discover
mineral soil are all more or less unreliable, and result in endless
mistakes.
"'What!' says this Jesuit father, 'is it possible that people are
willing to attribute greater knowledge and judgment to a rough and
lifeless piece of wood than to hundreds of enlightened men? They
survey fields, mountains and valleys, devoting scrupulous attention to
everything that comes under their notice; not a trace of metal do they
discover; and if they happen to suspect that there might be such a
thing at a certain spot, they confess that their surmise may be quite
unfounded, and that every day they learn to their sorrow, after
infinite labor and suspense, that their signs are altogether deceptive.
"'Such a one as Goclenius,[4] however, armed with his fork, will wander
over the same ground, and led by that instrument, clearer-sighted than
the wisest of men, will infallibly come to a standstill over treasures
hidden in the earth. Excavations will be made at the spot indicated
and the treasures will be laid bare. _My dear reader, do you wish me
to speak candidly? It is the Devil who is guiding Goclenius_.'"
In this emphatic statement of the devout French priest of two centuries
ago is to be traced the still lingering superstition of an infernal
partnership in buried treasure. It is to be found in scores of
coastwise legends of pirates' gold (no Kidd story is properly decorated
without its guardian demon or menacing ghost), and the divining rod,
handed down from an age of witchcraft, necromancy, and black magic,
deserves a place in the kit of every well-equipped treasure seeker.
Sober, hard-headed Scotchmen from Glasgow employ a Yorkshire "dowser"
to search for the treasure lost in the _Florencia_ galleon in Tobermory
Bay, and he shows them, and they are convinced, that he can tell
whether it be gold, or silver, or copper, which exerts its occult
influence over his divining rod.[5] This happens in the year 1906,
mind you, but our ardent investigator, M. de Vallemont, was writing two
hundred years before:
"But, with the divining rod, it is possible to distinguish what metal
is contained in the mine towards which the rod inclines. For if a gold
coin be placed in each hand, the rod will only turn in the direction of
gold, because it becomes impregnated with the _corpuscles_ or minute
particles of gold. If silver be treated in the same way, the rod will
only dip towards silver. This, at any rate, is what we are told by
those who pride themselves on their successful use of the rod."
John Stears, the expert diviner, who was recently employed at Tobermory
Bay, is more frequently retained to search for water than for lost
treasure. This is his vocation and he takes it seriously enough, as
his own words indicate:[6]
"The power is not in the rod, but in the user, the rod acting as an
indicator, and rising when over a stream. By moving the arms as I
proceed, I can keep on the edge of an underground stream, for the apex
descends when the rod is not over the stream. I have several times
followed a line of water down to the shore, being rowed out in the bay,
and found the water boiling up mixed with land weeds. At such a spot
there is no movement of the rod except over the course of the stream.
It is almost impossible to describe the sensation caused whilst using
the rod; it is sometimes like a current of electricity going through
the arms and legs. On raising one foot from the ground the rod
descends. The effect produced when walking is that the rod has the
appearance of a fishing rod when the fish is hooked,--the rod seems
alive. Move it clear of the line of water and down it goes.
"Very few people have the gift of finding water or minerals, and not
many rods will do, but those that have thorns on them are all right.
In the tropics I used acacia, and in southern Europe the holly or
orange. The use of the rod is exhausting. If I have been at it a few
hours, the power gradually gets less. A rest and some sandwiches
produce fresh power, and I can start again.
"I think the friction of the water against the rock underground must
cause some electric current, for if the person using the rod stands on
a piece of glass, india-rubber, or other insulating material, all power
leaves him.
"In Cashmere, the rod is used before a well is sunk, and when the
French army went to Tonkin, they used the rod for finding drinking
water at their camps, as they feared the wells were poisoned."
If the divining rod is able to fathom the secrets of underground water
channels, it must be as potent in the case of buried treasure. Several
years ago, the claims of the modern "dowsers" were investigated by no
less an authority than Professor W. F. Barrett, holding the chair of
Experimental Physics in the Royal College of Science for Ireland. The
results were presented to the Society of Psychical Research and
published in two volumes of its proceedings. He said in his
introductory pages:
"At first sight, few subjects appear to be so unworthy of serious
notice and so utterly beneath scientific investigation as that of the
divining rod. To most men of science, the reported achievements of the
diviner are on a par with the rogueries of Sir Walter Scott's
'Dousterswivel.' That anyone with the smallest scientific training
should think it worth his while to devote a considerable amount of time
and labor to an enquiry into the alleged evidence on behalf of the
'rod' will appear to my scientific friends about as sensible as if he
spent his time investigating fortune-telling or any other relic of
superstitious folly. Nor was my own prejudice against the subject any
less than that of others. For I confess that it was with great
reluctance, and even repugnance, that some six years ago, yielding to
the earnest request of the Council of the Society for Psychical
Research, I began an investigation of the matter, hoping, however, in
my ignorance, that a few weeks work would enable me to relegate it 'to
a limbo, large and broad, since called the Paradise of Fools.'" In the
summing-up of his exhaustive investigations, Professor Barrett
committed himself to these conclusions:
"1. That the twisting of the forked twig, or so-called divining rod,
is due to involuntary muscular action on the part of the dowser.
"2. That this is the result of an ideo-motor action; any idea or
suggestion, whether conscious, or sub-conscious, that is associated in
the dowser's mind with the twisting of the twig, will cause it to turn
apparently spontaneously in his hands.
"3. Hence the divining rod has been used in the search for all sorts
of things, from criminals to water, its action being precisely similar
to the '_pendule explorateur_,' i.e., a small suspended ball or ring
depending by a thread from the hand.
"4. Dismissing, therefore, the mere twisting of the forked rod, the
question at issue is, how is the suggestion derived by the dowser that
starts this involuntary muscular action? Here the answer is a very
complex and difficult one.
"5. Careful and critical examination shows that certain dowsers (not
all in whose hands the twig turns) have a genuine facility or faculty
for finding underground water beyond that possessed by ordinary
well-sinkers.
"Part of this success is due (1st) to shrewd observation and the
conscious and unconscious detection of the surface signs of underground
water. (2nd) A residue, say ten per cent or fifteen per cent of their
successes cannot be so explained, nor can these be accounted for by
chance nor lucky hits, the proportion being larger than the doctrine of
probabilities would account for.
"This residue no known scientific explanation can account for.
Personally, I believe the explanation will be found in some faculty
akin to clairvoyance; but as the science of to-day does not recognize
such a faculty, I prefer to leave the explanation to future inquirers,
and to throw on the skeptic the task of disproving my assertions, and
giving his own explanations."
This unexplained residue, "akin to clairvoyance," as admitted by a
scientist of to-day who wears a top-hat and rides in taxi-cabs, clothes
the divining rod in the same alluring mystery which so puzzled those
childlike and credulous observers of remote and misty centuries. The
Abbe de Vallemont, writing in 1697, found the problem hardly more
difficult to explain than does this Professor of Experimental Physics
in the Royal College of Science. The wise men of the seventeenth
century strove hard to comprehend the "unexplained residue," each after
his own fashion.
Michael Mayerus, in his book entitled _Verum Inventum, hoc est, Munera
Germanae_, claimed that the world was indebted to Germany for the
invention of gunpowder, and stated that the first wood-charcoal used in
its manufacture, mixed with sulphur and saltpeter, was made from the
hazel tree. This lead him to refer to the sympathy existing between
hazel wood and metals, and to add that for this reason the divining rod
was made of this particular wood, which was peculiarly adapted to the
discovery of hidden gold and silver.
Philip Melanchthon, 1497-1560, famously learned in Natural Philosophy
and Theology, discoursed on Sympathy, of which he recognized six
degrees in Nature, and in the second of these he named that sympathy or
affinity which is found to exist between plants and minerals. He used
as an illustration the forked hazel twig employed by those who search
after gold, silver, and other precious metals. He attributed the
movement of the rod to the metallic juices which nourish the hazel tree
in the soil, and he was therefore convinced that its peculiar
manifestations were wholly sympathetic and according to natural law.
Neuheusius spoke of the divining rod as a marvel from the bounteous
hands of Nature, and exhorted men to use it in the search for mineral
wealth and concealed treasure. Enchanted with this
insignificant-looking instrument, he exclaimed: "What shall I say now
concerning the Divine Rod, which is but a simple hazel twig, and yet
possesses the power of divination in the discovery of metals, be that
power derived from mutual sympathy, from some secret astral influence,
or from some still more powerful source. Let us take courage and use
this salutary rod, so that, after having withdrawn the metals from the
abode of the dead, we may seek in the metals themselves some such
faculty for divination as we find in the hazel."
Rudolph Glauber, who made many experiments with the rod, had this to
say of it: "Metallic veins can also be discovered by means of the hazel
rod. It is used for that purpose, and I speak after long experience.
Melt the metals under a certain constellation, and make a ball of them
pierced through the middle; thrust into the hole thus formed a young
sprig of hazel, of the same year, with no branches. Carry this rod
straight in front of you over the places where metals are believed to
be, and when the rod dips and the ball inclines towards the soil, you
may rest assured that metal lies beneath. _And as this method is based
on natural law, it should undoubtedly be used in preference to any
other_."
Egidius Gustman, supposedly a Rosicrucian friar, and author of a work
entitled _La Revelation de la Divine Majeste_, devoted a chapter to the
study of the question "whether hazel rods may be used without sin in
the search for metals." He reached the conclusion that there could be
nothing unchristian in their employment for the discovery of gold and
silver, provided neither words, ceremonies, nor enchantments be called
into requisition, and that it be done "in the fear and under the eyes
of God."
M. de Vallemont quotes as his final authority the Abbe Gallet, Grand
Penitentiary of the Church of Carpentras. He considers that the Abbe's
high position in the church, and his deep knowledge of physics and
mathematics, should lend great weight to his opinion concerning the
divining rod. He therefore requests a mutual friend to put to the Abbe
this question, "Is not the inclination of the rod due to sleight of
hand or something in which the Devil may play a part?" The Abbe
returns a long reply in Latin, which de Vallemont is pleased to
translate and print in his book. It opens thus:
"Monsieur l'Abbe Gallet declares in his own hand that the rod turns in
the direction of water and of metals; that he has used it several times
with admirable success in order to find water-courses and hidden
treasure, and that he is far from agreeing with those who maintain that
there is in it any trickery or diabolical influence."
William Cookworthy, who flourished in England about 1750, was a famous
exponent of the divining rod, and he laid down a most elaborate
schedule of directions for its use in finding hidden treasure or veins
of gold or silver. In conclusion, he sagely observed:[7]
"I would remark that 'tis plain a person may be very easily deceived in
making experiments with this instrument, there being, in metallic
countries, vast quantities of attracting stones scattered through the
earth. The attractions of springs continually occurring; and even
about town, bits of iron, pins, etc. may easily be the means of
deceiving the unwary. For as quantity makes no alteration in the
strength, but only in the wideness of the attraction, a pin under one
foot would stop the attraction of any quantity of every other sort, but
gold, which might be under the other.... Whoever, therefore, will make
experiments need be very cautious in exploring the ground, and be sure
not to be too anxious, for which reason I would advise him, in case of
debates, not to be too warm and lay wagers on the success, but,
unruffled, leave the unbelievers to their infidelity, and permit time
and Providence to convince people of the reality of the thing."
If one would know how to fashion the divining rod to give most surely
the magic results, he has only to consult "The Shepherd's Calendar and
Countryman's Companion" in which it is affirmed:
"Cut a hazel wand forked at the upper end like a Y. Peel off the rind
and dry it in a moderate heat; then steep it in the juice of wake-robin
or night-shade, and cut the single lower end sharp, and where you
suppose any rich mine or treasure is near, place a piece of the same
metal you conceive is hid in the earth to the tip of one of the forks
by a hair or very fine silk or thread, and do the like to the other
end. Pitch the sharp single end lightly to the ground at the going
down of the sun, the moon being at the increase, and in the morning at
sunrise, by a natural sympathy, you will find the metal inclining, as
it were, pointing to the place where the other is hid."
According to the author of the modern book, "The Divining Rod and its
Uses,"[8] "it is curious to note that about one hundred years ago there
was considerable excitement in the north of England owing to the
remarkable powers possessed by a lady of quality in the district, this
being no other than Judith Noel, afterwards Lady Milbank, the mother of
Lady Byron. Miss Noel discovered her marvelous faculty when a mere
girl, yet so afraid was she of being ridiculed that she would not
publicly declare it, thinking she might be called a witch, or that she
would not get a husband. Lady Milbank afterwards overcame her
prejudice and used the rod on many occasions with considerable success."
About 1880, a certain Madame Caillavah of Paris was at the height of
her fame as a high-priestess of the divining rod, and her pretensions
with respect to finding buried treasure quite set France by the ears.
She was besought to discover, among other hoards, the twelve golden
effigies taken from the Saint Chapelle during the Revolution and hidden
underground for safe-keeping; the treasure of King Stanislaus, buried
outside the gates of Nancy; and the vast accumulations of the Petits
Peres, or Begging Friars. The French Government took Madame seriously
and permitted her to operate by means of an agreement which should
insure a proper division of the spoils. There could be no better
authority for the singular exploits of Madame Caillavah than the
columns of _The London Times_ which stated in the issue of October 6th,
1882:
"A certain Madame Caillavah, who in spite of a long experience does not
yet bring the credentials of success, is said to be exploring the
pavement of St. Denis[9] in search of buried treasures. The French
Government likes partnerships, conventions, and co-dominions, and it
insists on what almost amounts to the lion's share of the spoil.
Nevertheless, a good many people have been found to invest largely in
the enterprise, which will cost something if it comes to actual
digging. The investigation itself is not in the nature of an
excavation, nor is it with the spade or the pickax, unless, indeed, it
should turn out that it is a veritable gold mine under St. Denis, when
the royal monuments may be thankful if even dynamite be not freely
resorted to.
"The divining rod is to lead the way.... At the beginning of this
century France was one vast field of buried treasure. The silver coin
was so bulky that L200 of our money would be a hundredweight to carry,
and L1,000 would be a cartload. So it was buried in the hope of a
speedy return. The fugitive owners perished or died in exile. Their
successors on the spot came upon one hoard after another, and said
nothing about it. That they did find the money and put it in
circulation, there could be no doubt, for it was impossible to take a
handful of silver forty years ago without one or two pieces showing a
green rust in place of a white luster. This was the result of long
interment, and calculations were made as to the likely total of the
exhumation.
"But one then heard nothing of the divining rod, not at least in
cities, in cathedrals, among the sepulchers of kings, and in the
department of State. Our first wish is that the experiment may be
quite successful. It would be so very surprising; quite a new
sensation, much wanted in these days. But there would be something
more than a passing sensation. Even a moderate success would discover
to us a means of support and a mode of existence far easier and
pleasanter than any yet known. We should only have to walk about, very
slowly with the orthodox rod, properly held and handled, keeping our
attention duly fixed on the desirableness of a little more money, and
we should find it springing up, as it were, from the ground before
us....
"The French Minister of Fine Arts need not be deterred,--nay, it is
plain he is not deterred,--by the scruples that interrupted the
investigations of the great Linne and stopped him on the very threshold
of verification. On one of his travels his secretary brought him a
divining wand, with an account of its powers. Linne hid a purse
containing one hundred ducats under a _ranunculus_[10] in the garden.
He then took a number of witnesses who experimented with the wand all
over the ground, but without success. Indeed, they trod the ground so
completely that Linne could not find where he had buried the purse.
"They then brought in the 'man with the wand' and he immediately
pointed out the right direction, and then the very spot where the money
lay. Linne's remark was that another experiment would convert him to
the wand. But he resolved not to be converted, and therefore did not
repeat the experiment. Possibly feeling that it was neither science
nor religion, he would have nothing to do with any other conceivable
alternative."
In _The London Times_ of November 3rd, 1882, there was published under
the head of "Foreign Intelligence," the following dispatch which may be
regarded as a tragic sequel of the foregoing paragraphs:
"The titular Archbishop of Lepanto, who is the head of the Chapter of
St. Denis, has addressed a remonstrance to the Government against the
renewed divining rod experiments on which Madame Caillavah is insisting
under her compact with the State for a division of the spoils. He
dwells on the absurdity of the theory that on the Revolutionary seizure
of 1793 the Benedictines could have concealed a portion of their
treasures, of which printed lists existed and the most valuable of
which were notoriously confiscated.
"As to the notion of an earlier secretion of treasures, the memory of
which had perished, he urges that St. Denis having belonged to the
Benedictines from its very erection, no motive for secretion existed
and had there been any, the tradition or record of it would have been
preserved, while at least four successive reconstructions would
certainly have brought any such treasure to light. The mob of 1793,
moreover, actually ransacked the vaults, after the removal of the
bodies, for the very purpose of discovering such secret hoards. St.
Denis, in short, is the very last place in the world for
treasure-trove, and as for the central crypt, which the sorceress
claims to break into, it was rifled in 1793 when it contained
fifty-three bodies which left no vacant space.
"The Archbishop need scarcely have troubled himself with this
demonstration. Public ridicule has made an end of the project, and
even if Madame Caillavah carried out her threat of a lawsuit, no
tribunal would hold her entitled to carry on excavations _ad libitum_,
with a risk, perhaps, of herself and her workmen being buried under the
ruins of the finest of French cathedrals. In debating the Fine Arts
Department estimates, M. Delattre, Deputy for St. Denis, animadverted
on the divining rod experiments in the cathedral. M. Tirard replied
that the Government had had no share in this ridiculous business. The
treaty with the sorceress was concluded in January, 1881, by an
official who had since been superannuated, but was not acted upon till
she could deposit two hundred francs guarantee, and as soon as he
himself heard of the experiments he put a peremptory stop to them.
"It is important here to observe that it afterwards transpired that the
object of Madame Caillavah's lawsuit was not so much to obtain damages
for any breach of contract as to vindicate her private and public
character and her professional reputation as a so-called 'diviner' from
the odium, scorn, and defamation which the repudiation of the treaty so
universally entailed. The sad result of all this was that the
unfortunate and sensitive lady was not able to withstand the opprobrium
that was heaped upon her, nor 'the ridicule that made an end of her
project.' This maligned and misunderstood lady (who, as expressly
stated, 'had no doubt brought a good pedigree with her') after a few
months of sorrow, and conscious of her rectitude, at length succumbed
and, as reported, ultimately died of a 'broken heart.'"
[1] "_Corpuscular philosophy_, that which attempts to account for the
phenomena of nature, by the motion, figure, rest, position, etc., of
the minute particles of matter."--_Webster's Dictionary_.
[2] Andrew Lang writes in a chapter on the divining rod in _Custom and
Myth_:
"The great authority for the modern history of the divining rod is a
work published by M. Chevreul in Paris in 1854. M. Chevreul, probably
with truth, regarded the wand as much on a par with the turning tables
which, in 1854, attracted a good deal of attention.... M. Chevreul
could find no earlier book on the twig than the _Testament du Frere_,
Basile Valentin, a holy man who flourished (the twig) about 1413, but
whose treatise is possibly apocryphal. According to Basile Valentin,
the twig was regarded with awe by ignorant laboring men, which is still
true."
[3] "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and
chestnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white
appear which was in the rods.
"And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the
gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that
they should conceive when they came to drink." (Genesis xxx, 37-38.)
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with
thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the
river, take in thy hand, and go.
"Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and
thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that
the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of
Israel." (Exodus xvii, 5-6.)
[4] Goclenius was a diviner who also professed to make "magnetic cures."
[5] See chapter 9, p. 218.
[6] Quoted from the volume, _Water Divining_ (London, 1902).
[7] The Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1752).
[8] By Young and Robertson (London, 1894).
[9] For centuries the home of the Benedictine Order.
[10] In plain English, flowers of the buttercup family.