THE MAGIC WAND.
It is sufficiently remarkable that the rod, besides being an emblem of
authority, is also an instrument of the supernatural. An indispensable
instrument, one may say; for was ever a magician depicted in book, in
picture, or in the mind's eye, without a wand? Does even the most
amateurish of prestidigitateurs attempt to emulate the performances of
the once famous Wizard of the North, without the aid of the magic staff?
The magician, necromancer, soothsayer, or conjurer, is as useless
without his wand as a Newcastle pitman is without his 'daug.'
At first thought it might be assumed that the association of the rod or
wand with necromancy is merely an indication of power or authority, in
the same way as the sceptre is associated with kingship. But there is
something more in it. Magic has been well called 'the shadow of
religion,' and the early religious idea found expression in symbols.
These symbols, as we know, have in many cases retained a certain
significance long after the ideas they were meant to convey have been
lost, or abandoned, or modified. If we bear these things in mind, it is
not difficult to discover a religious origin for the symbolic wand of
necromancy.
Mr. Moncure Conway, in his book on Demonology and Devil-lore, mentions a
thing which seems peculiarly apposite to our subject. In the old town of
Hanover there is a certain schoolhouse, in which, above the teacher's
chair, there was originally a representation of a dove perched upon a
rod--the rod in this case being meant to typify a branch. Below the dove
and rod there was this inscription: 'This shall lead you unto all
Truth.' But the dove has long since disappeared, and there remains now
but the rod and the inscription. It is natural that the children of the
school should apply the admonition to the rod, ignorant that the rod was
but the supporter of a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Thus has the pious
design of inculcating a Divine lesson left only an emblem of mysterious
terror. In some way, too, has the magic wand lost its religious
significance and become but a dread implement of the occult.
Yet we might trace the origin of the magician's wand to the very same
root as that of the iron rod of the Hanover schoolhouse. We may find it
in the olive-branch brought by the dove into the ark--a message of
Divine love and mercy--and therefore a connecting-link between human
needs and desires and superhuman power. To construe a mere symbol into a
realized embodiment of the virtue symbolized were surely as easy in this
case as in that of the Eucharist.
But if this suggestion of the origin of the magician's wand be thought
too hypothetical, there will be less objection to our finding it in
Aaron's rod. Moses was commanded to take a rod from the chiefs of each
of the twelve tribes, and to write upon each rod the name. The rods were
then to be placed in the Tabernacle, and the owner of the one which
blossomed was designated as the chosen one. The rod of the house of Levi
bore the name of Aaron, and this was the only one of the twelve which
blossomed. Here once more was the rod used to connect human needs with
Divine will; but now a special virtue is made to appear in the rod
itself. This virtue appeared again, when Pharaoh called all the
sorcerers and magicians of Egypt to test their enchantments with
Aaron's. All these magicians bore wands, or rods, and when they threw
them on the ground the rods turned into serpents. Aaron's rod also
turned into a serpent, and swallowed all the others. Now, here we find
two things established. First, that even in these early days necromancy
was a profession, and the rod a necessary implement of the craft; and,
second, that the rod was esteemed not merely an emblem of authority, or
a mere ornament of office, but as a thing of superhuman power in itself
although the power could only be evoked by the specially gifted.
We find the beginning of the idea in the story of Moses' rod which
turned into a serpent when he cast it on the ground at the Divine
command. This was what led up to the trial of skill with the Egyptian
magicians, and seems to have been the first suggestion in early history
of the miraculous virtues of the rod. Then we must remember that it was
by the stretching forth of the rod of the prophet that all the waters of
Egypt were made to turn into blood, and that the plagues of frogs and
lice were wrought, and that the hail was called down from heaven which
destroyed the crops and flocks of the Egyptians. In fact, all the
miracles performed in the land of Egypt were made to appear more or less
as the result of the application of the magic rod, just as to this day
the clever conjurer appears to produce his wonderful effects with his
wand.
It was by the stretching forth of the rod of Moses that the Red Sea
divided, and that the water sprang from the rock. The staff of Elisha
and the spear of Joshua may also be cited in this connection, and other
examples in Holy Writ may occur to the reader. They are mentioned here
in no spirit of irreverence, but merely as evidence that the magic
virtue of the rod was a fixed belief in the minds of the early writers.
Belief in the vitalizing power of the rod may be found embalmed in many
a curious mediaeval legend. The budding rod, borrowed from the tradition
of Aaron's, is, for instance, very frequent. Thus in the story of St.
Christophoros, as preserved in Von Buelow's Christian Legends of Germany,
we read of the godly man carrying the Child-Christ on his back through a
raging torrent, and afterwards lying down on the banks of the stream,
exhausted, to sleep. The staff which he stuck in the ground ere he lay
down, budded and blossomed before he awoke, and in the morning he found
a great umbrageous tree bearing fruit, and giving shelter to hundreds of
gorgeous birds. There are many such legends in the traditions of all the
Christian nations, and the collection and comparison of them would be an
interesting and instructive task, but one too large for our present
purpose.
It is related by Holinshed, in connection with many wonderful visions
which were seen in Scotland about A.D. 697, that once when the Bishop
was conducting the service in the church of Camelon, with the
crozier-staff in his hand, 'it was kindled so with fire that by no means
it could be quenched till it was burnt even to ashes.' This was supposed
to have been the handiwork of the devil, who has on other occasions used
the staff or wand to emphasize his intentions or mark his spite. Thus,
of the famous Dr. Fian it is narrated in the 'Newes from Scotland,
declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable Sorcerer, who was
burned at Edenborough in Januarie last 1591; which Doctor was Register
to the Devill, that sundrie times Preached at North-Baricke Kirke to a
number of notorious Witches,' etc.--that he made the following, among
his other confessions: 'That the devill had appeared unto him in the
night before, appareled all in blacke, with a white wand in his hande,
and that the devill demanded of him if he would continue his faithfull
service according to his first oath and promise made to that effect,
whome (as hee then said) he utterly renounced to his face, and said unto
him in this manner: "Avoide, avoide, Satan, for I have listened too
much unto thee, and by the same thou hast undone me, in respect whereof
I utterly forsake thee." To whom the devill answered, "That once, ere
thou die, thou shalt be mine," and with that (as he sayed) the devill
brake the white wand, and immediately vanished from sight.' After which,
the chronicle goes on to tell how the redoubtable doctor actually
escaped from prison, and began to resume his Satanic practices.
This brings us to the most frequent use of the rod in superstitions--for
the purposes of divination. There is a suggestion of the practice by
Nebuchadnezzar, when he 'stood at the parting of the way, at the head of
two ways, to use divinations, he made his arrows bright,' etc. He then
threw up a bundle of arrows to see which way they would alight, and
because they fell on the right hand he marched towards Jerusalem.
Divination by the wand is also suggested in the shooting of an arrow
from a window by Elisha, and by the strokes upon the ground with an
arrow by which Joash foretold the number of his victories.
Sir Thomas Browne speaks of a common 'practice among us to determine
doubtful matters by the opening of a book and letting fall of a staff.'
The 'staff' business is not quite so familiar in present days, but the
opening of a book for prophetic guidance is, perhaps, more common than
most people suppose.
Sir Thomas Browne also speaks of a 'strange kind of exploration and
peculiar way of Rhabdomancy' used in mineral discoveries. That is,
'with a fork of hazel, commonly called Moses his rod, which, freely held
forth, will stir and play if any mine be under it. And though many there
are,' says the learned doctor, 'who have attempted to make it good, yet
until better information, we are of opinion, with Agricola, that in
itself it is a fruitless exploration, strongly scenting of pagan
derivation and the _virgula divina_ proverbially magnified of old. The
ground whereof were the magical rods in poets--that of Pallas, in Homer;
that of Mercury, that charmed Argus; and that of Circe, which
transformed the followers of Ulysses. Too boldly usurping the name of
Moses' rod, from which notwithstanding, and that of Aaron, were probably
occasioned the fables of all the rest. For that of Moses must needs be
famous unto the Egyptians, and that of Aaron unto many other nations, as
being preserved in the Ark until the destruction of the Temple built by
Solomon.'
One may look in vain, perhaps, for modern instances of the divining-rod
under the name of 'Moses his rod,' as old Sir Thomas found it.
It is curious, however, that Sir Thomas Browne, who was so fond of
delving among ancient writers, makes no reference to a striking passage
in Herodotus. That historian, speaking of the Scythians, says, 'They
have amongst them a great number who practise the art of divination. For
this purpose they use a number of willow-twigs in this manner: they
bring large bundles of these together, and having untied them, dispose
them one by one on the ground, each bundle at a distance from the rest.
This done, they pretend to foretell the future, during which they take
up the bundles separately and tie them again together.'
From this it may be seen that while the divining-rod was a familiar
instrument 450 years before Christ, it was also then disbelieved in by
some. Curious to think that what the old historian of Halicarnassus was
wise enough to ridicule four centuries and a half before the birth of
Christ, there are yet people, nineteen centuries after His advent,
simple enough to accept!
Herodotus goes on to tell that this mode of divination was hereditary
among the Scythians, so how many centuries earlier it may have been
practised one can hardly guess. He says that the 'enaries, or effeminate
men, affirm that the art of divination was taught them by the goddess
Venus,' a statement which will carry some significance to those who are
familiar with the theories so boldly advocated by the author of Bible
Folklore.
Now, the attempt to divine by means of rods, arrows, staffs or twigs is
evidently a good deal older than Herodotus, and it is to be found among
almost every race of people on the face of the earth. Let us say
'almost,' because Mr. Andrew Lang instances this as one form of
superstition which is not prevalent among savage races; or rather, to
use his exact words, 'is singular in its comparative lack of copious
savage analogues.' The qualification seems to be necessary, because
there are certainly some, if not 'copious,' instances among savage
peoples of the use of the divining-rod in one form or other. And Mr.
Lang is hardly accurate in speaking of the 'resurrection' of this
superstition in our own country. It has, in fact, never died, and there
is scarcely a part of the country where a 'diviner' has not tried
his--or her, for it is often a woman--skill with the 'twig' from time to
time. These attempts have seldom been known beyond the immediate
locality and the limited circle of those interested in them, and it is
only of late years, since folklore became more of a scientific and
general study, that the incidents have been seized upon and recorded by
the curious. From the time of Moses until now the 'rod' has been almost
continuously used by innumerable peoples in the effort to obtain
supplies of water.
In ancient times it was used, as we have seen, for a variety of other
purposes; but its surviving use in our generation is to indicate the
locality of hidden springs or of mineral deposits. There are cases on
record, however, so recently as the last century, when the rod was used
in the detection of criminals, and a modified application of it to a
variety of indefinite purposes may even be traced to the planchette,
which, at this very day, is seriously believed in by many persons who
are ranked as 'intelligent.'
Now, of the use of the divining-rod in England, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer thus
wrote some years ago: 'The _virgula divinatoria_, or divining-rod, is a
forked branch in the form of a Y, cut off a hazel-stick, by means of
which people have pretended to discover mines, springs, etc.,
underground. It is much employed in our mining districts for the
discovery of hidden treasure. In Cornwall, for instance, the miners
place much confidence in its indications, and even educated, intelligent
men oftentimes rely on its supposed virtues. Pryce, in his Mineralogia
Cornubiensis, tells us that many mines have been discovered by the rod,
and quotes several; but after a long account of the method of cutting,
tying and using it, rejects it, because 'Cornwall is so plentifully
stored with tin and copper lodes, that some accident every week
discovers to us a fresh vein,' and because 'a grain of metal attracts
the rod as strongly as a pound, for which reason it has been found to
dip equally to a poor as to a rich lode.'
But in Lancashire and Cumberland also, Mr. Dyer goes on to say, 'the
power of the divining-rod is much believed in, and also in other parts
of England.' The method of using it is thus described. The small ends,
being crooked, are to be held in the hands in a position flat or
parallel to the horizon, and the upper part at an elevation having an
angle to it of about seventy degrees. The rod must be grasped strongly
and steadily, and then the operator walks over the ground. When he
crosses a lode, its bending is supposed to indicate the presence
thereof. Mr. Dyer's explanation of the result is simple: 'The position
of the hands in holding the rod is a constrained one--it is not easy to
describe it; but the result is that the hands, from weariness speedily
induced in the muscles, grasp the end of the twig yet more rigidly, and
thus is produced the mysterious bending. The phenomena of the
divining-rod and table-turning are of precisely the same character, and
both are referable to an involuntary muscular action resulting from
fixedness of idea. These experiments with a divining-rod are always made
in a district known to be metalliferous, and the chances are, therefore,
greatly in favour of its bending over or near a mineral lode.'
The theory of 'involuntary muscular action' is a favourite explanation,
and the subject is one well worthy of the investigation of all students
of psychology. But how does this theory square with the story of
Linnaeus, told by a writer in _The Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1752? 'When
Linnaeus was upon his voyage to Scania, hearing his secretary highly
extol the virtues of his divining-rod, he was willing to convince him of
its insufficiency, and for that purpose concealed a purse of 100 ducats
under a ranunculus which grew up by itself in a meadow, and bid the
secretary find it if he could. The wand discovered nothing, and
Linnaeus's mark was soon trampled down by the company who were present,
so that when Linnaeus went to finish the experiment by fetching the gold
himself, he was utterly at a loss where to find it. The man with the
wand assisted him, and told him that it could not lie in the way they
were going, but quite the contrary; so pursued the direction of the
wand, and actually dug out the gold. Linnaeus adds, that such another
experiment would be sufficient to make a proselyte of him.'
The explanation of this case by the incredulous would, of course, be
that the owner of the wand had made a private mark of his own, and thus
knew better than Linnaeus where the gold lay.
The divining-rod, however, is not used only in districts which are known
to abound in metalliferous deposits, when minerals are being searched
for, but has frequently been used by prospectors in new countries. Thus
we recall that Captains Burton and Cameron in their book about the Gold
Coast, tell how the rod was used by the early British explorers on the
Gambia River. One Richard Jobson, in 1620, landed and searched various
parts of the country, armed with mercury, nitric acid, some large
crucibles, and a divining-rod. He washed the sand and examined the rocks
beyond the Falls of Barraconda, with small success for a long time. At
last, however, he found what he declared to be 'the mouth of the mine
itself, and found gold in such abundance as surprised him with joy and
admiration.' But what part the divining-rod played in the discovery is
not related, and, for the rest, 'the mine' has disappeared as
mysteriously as it was discovered. No one else has seen it, and all the
gold that now comes from the Gambia River is a small quantity of dust
washed down from the mountain-ridges of the interior. It is curious,
however, to find civilized Europeans carrying the divining-rod to one of
the districts where, according to Mr. Andrew Lang, it has no analogue
among the primitive savages.
I have mentioned, on the authority of Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, some of the
districts of England in which the divining-rod is still more or less
used. But something of its more extended use may be learned from Mr.
Hilderic Friend's Flowers and Flower-Lore. That writer informs us of a
curious custom of the hop-pickers of Kent and Sussex for ascertaining
where they shall stand to pick. One of them cuts as many slips of hazel
as there are bins in the garden, and on these he cuts notches from one
upwards. Each picker then draws a twig, and his standing is decided by
the number upon it. This is certainly an interesting instance of the
divination by twigs reduced to practical ends. The same writer regards
the familiar 'old-wife' fortune-telling by tea-leaves as merely another
variation of this old superstition. It does seem to have some analogy to
several of the practices to which we have briefly referred, and one
finds another analogy in the Chinese custom of divining by straws.
The divining-rod of England is described by Mr. Friend much in the same
way as by Mr. Dyer. But, according to Mr. Friend, hazel was not always,
although it has for a long time been, the favourite wood for the
purpose. Elder, at any rate, is strictly forbidden, as deemed incapable
of exhibiting magical powers. In Wiltshire and elsewhere Mr. Friend
knows of the magic rod having been used recently for detecting water. It
must be cut at some particular time when the stars are favourable, and
'in cutting it, one must face the east, so that the rod shall be one
which catches the first rays of the morning sun, or, as some say, the
eastern and western sun must shine through the fork of the rod,
otherwise it will be good for nothing.'
The same superstition prevails in China with regard to rods cut from the
magic peach-tree. In Prussia, it is said, hazel-rods are cut in spring,
and when harvest comes they are placed in crosses over the grain to keep
it good for years, while in Bohemia the rod is used to cure fevers. A
twig of apple-tree is, in some parts, considered as good as a hazel-rod,
but it must be cut by the seventh son of a seventh son. Brand records
that he has known ash-twigs used, and superstitiously regarded, in some
parts of England; but the hazel is more generally supposed to be popular
with the fairies, or whoever may be the mysterious spirits who guide the
diviner's art. Hence perhaps the name, common in some parts, of
witch-hazel, although, of course, philologists will have it that the
true derivation is wych. In Germany the witch-hazel is the
_zauber-streuch_, or the magic-tree, and it is probable that both witch
and wych are from the Anglo-Saxon _wic-en_, to bend. It is curious, at
any rate, that while in olden times a witch was called _wicce_, the
mountain-ash, which, as we have seen, has supposed occult virtues, was
formerly called _wice_. Whether this root has any connection with
another name by which the magic wand is known--viz., the
wishing-rod--may be doubted, but there is clearly a close connection
between the hazel-twig of superstitious England and the
_Niebelungen-rod_ of Germany, which gave to its possessor power over all
the world.
Of the employment of the divining-rod for the detection of criminals
there are many cases on record, but the most famous in comparatively
recent times is that of Jacques Aymar of Lyons. The full details of the
doings of this remarkable person are given by Mr. Baring-Gould in his
Curious Myths of the Middle Ages; but the story is told more concisely
by another writer: 'On July 5, 1692, a vintner and his wife were found
dead in the cellar of their shop at Lyons. They had been killed by blows
from a hedging-knife, and their money had been stolen. The culprits
could not be discovered, and a neighbour took upon him to bring to Lyons
a peasant out of Dauphine, named Jacques Aymar, a man noted for his
skill with the divining-rod. The Lieutenant-Criminel and the Procureur
du Roi took Aymar into the cellar, furnishing him with a rod of the
first wood that came to hand. According to the Procureur du Roi the rod
did not move till Aymar reached the very spot where the crime had been
committed. His pulse then beat, and the wand twisted rapidly. Guided by
the wand, or by some internal sensation, Aymar now pursued the track of
the assassins, entered the court of the Archbishop's palace, left the
town by the bridge over the Rhone, and followed the right bank of the
river. He reached a gardener's house, which he declared the men had
entered, and some children confessed that three men, whom they
described, had come into the house one Sunday morning. Aymar followed
the track up the river, pointed out all the places where the men had
landed, and, to make a long story short, stopped at last at the door of
the prison of Beaucaire. He was admitted, looked at the prisoners, and
picked out as the murderer a little hunchback, who had just been
brought in for a small theft. The hunchback was taken to Lyons, and he
was recognised on the way by the people at all the stages where he had
stopped. At Lyons he was examined in the usual manner, and confessed
that he had been an accomplice in the crime, and had guarded the door.
Aymar pursued the other culprits to the coast, followed them by sea,
landed where they had landed, and only desisted from his search when
they crossed the frontier. As for the hunchback, he was broken on the
wheel, being condemned on his own confession.'
This is briefly the story of Jacques Aymar, which is authenticated by
various eye-witnesses, and of which many explanations have been tendered
from time to time. Mr. Baring-Gould commits himself to no definite
expression of opinion, but says: 'I believe that the imagination is the
principal motive force in those who use the divining-rod; but whether it
is so solely I am unable to decide. The powers of Nature are so
mysterious and inscrutable that we must be cautious in limiting them,
under abnormal conditions, to the ordinary laws of experience.' As,
however, Jacques Aymar failed ignominiously under all the subsequent
trials to which he was subjected, the most reasonable explanation of his
success, with regard to the Lyons murder, is that he was by nature a
clever detective, and that he was favoured by circumstances after he had
once caught a clue.
To return to the employment of the divining-rod in England, we find
numerous instances of its application in searching for water, and these
instances happen to be among the best authenticated of any on record.
Some years ago a writer in the _Times_ boldly declared that he had
himself seen the rod successfully used in seeking for water. He had even
tried it himself, with the determination that the rod should not be
allowed to twist, 'even if an ocean rolled under his feet.' But he
confessed that it did twist in spite of him, and that at the place was
found a concealed spring.
Then it is recorded of Lady Milbanke, mother of Lord Byron's wife, that
she had found a well by the violent twisting of the twig held in the
orthodox way in her hand--turning so violently, indeed, as almost to
break her fingers. Dr. Hutton was a witness of the affair, and has
recorded his experience, which is quoted in a curious book called
Jacob's Rod, published in London many years ago. This case, and others,
were cited by a writer in the twenty-second volume of the _Quarterly
Review_. De Quincey also asserted that he had frequently seen the
divining-rod successfully used in the quest of water, and declared that,
'whatever science or scepticism may say, most of the tea-kettles in the
Vale of Wrington, North Somersetshire, are filled by Rabdomancy.' Mr.
Baring-Gould also quotes the case of a friend of his own who was
personally acquainted with a Scotch lady who could detect hidden springs
with a twig, which was inactive in the hands of others who tried it on
the same spots.
Other instances might be cited, but enough has been said to show that
the magic rod, from the earliest periods, has been an instrument of
supernatural attributes, and that even to this day in our own country it
is still believed by some to have the special faculty of indicating the
presence of minerals and water. With regard to minerals, there are no
instances so well authenticated as those concerning the discovery of
water. With regard to these last a considerable amount of haziness still
exists, and, without venturing to pronounce them all fictions or
productions of the imagination, it may be possible to find an
explanation in a theory of hydroscopy. It is held that there are some
few persons who are hydroscopes by nature--that is to say, are endowed
with peculiar sensations which tell them the moment they are near water,
whether it be evident or hidden, a concealed watercourse or a
subterranean spring. If the existence of such a faculty, however
exceptional, be clearly established, it will afford an explanation of
certain successes with the divining-rod.