CHAPTER XIII. "It may well be called Jove's tree, when AS YOU LIKE IT. Act. iii., Scene 2. OF THE WISHING OR DIVINING ROD. There are various descriptions of divining rods of which the mountaineers avail themselves in order to discover whether this or that metal lies concealed in the mountain: before, however, we (that is Dr. Bräuner) disclose our own views of the subject we will first declare what Theophilus Albinus writes in his tract, entitled The Idolatry of the Divining Rod unmasked. First, then, as to the name of the wishing rod, and for what reason so denominated; second, what was the origin and invention of it; third, of what materials it is usually made; fourth, what must be observed as to the time of using it; fifth, what circumstances must be attended to in cutting and using it; sixth, what is required as to the appearance of the rod, and mode of carrying it; and seventh, in whose hands it can be profitably employed. All these points will be laid down on the authority of Simon Heinrich Reuter's Kingdom of the Devil, and the 1st part of Maurer's Great Wonders of the World. First then, as to its name; it is termed in Latin virga aurifera, metalloscopia, and commonly, virgula divina, seu divinatrix: it is also called mercurialis, on the authority of Matth. Wille, from the 486th page et seq. of Ezlerus, either from the planet of this name, as it partakes of its nature, and oscillates, or else from Mercury, who was a a man versed in several sciences, which he imparted to mankind, and was, in consequence, ranked by them amongst the gods he was also employed as a messenger between the gods and men. He was, moreover, a learned physician, who, by means of his caduceus and herbal, raised men from the dead, which caused him to be placed amongst the gods after his decease. Amongst us Germans it is called the fortunate rod, (Glucks-ruthe,) but generally the wishing rod, (Wunschel-ruthe,) either from the obsolete verb, wunschelen, which is so pregnant with meaning in the Pantomysteri; also wanckeln, or schwandern, that is to say, virga vacillans, or oscillating rod; or else it is derived from wunschen (wish), because men hope, by its means, to discover and ascertain that which they desire, Matth. Wille, qu. 1; or from winden (to twist,) because it turns and twists itself in the hand. Idem ibidem. Some people trace the origin and knowledge of the divining rod as far back as to Noah and his immediate posterity, since Thubalkain, upon Genesis x. 2, asserts, in his history of them, that they were accounted the progenitors of the mountaineers of Europe; and, because Job, who was a pre-eminently learned man, was also probably a diviner by the rod, Job xxviii, 1 and 5. Others trace the origin of the wishing rod to the time of Moses, the scripture repeatedly mentioning that he used his rod for the purposes of divination. But all these derivations are very ill supported, and we must seek for some other origin which shall be mentioned in its proper place. The bush, from which formerly alone the divining rod was broken off, was commonly the hazel nut. On this point the above quoted F. Maurer observes: "If a medlar grows upon a hazel nut bush such a rod is more powerful, because men must observe that singulari quadam sympathid, or by a certain peculiar sympathy, a white field snake is wont to harbor in a bush of this description. And the forked branches which point towards the rising of the sun, have more virtue than others." When a regularly ordained priest consecrates rods of this description, ut creaturam Dei suam adurem creatam (as God's own creature to the thing created)," in order that God's own creature (the sun, so termed as his noblest inanimate work) may shed its kindly influences on the thing created, or called into existence by its beams." Such we believe to be the meaning of the passage, but our latinity lies dusty, and worm-eaten on our shelves, and we are open to correction from any lately birched, newly breeched, and totally unfledged stripling, or from the hands of any of that numerous tribe of gentlemen who rejoice "In foolscap uniforms turned up with ink," or, without any superstition, by cutting off these branches a cross is made, and holy words, with prayer and praise to God, are spoken; so that instead of bringing loss, it is more likely to produce the desired blessing. At the present day all kinds of wood are suitable for this purpose, as the beech, the birch, the fir, the ash, the elder, the oak, the apple, the pear, the yew tree, &c. Indeed men may use for this purpose wire, paper, a sword, fishbones, snuffers, brooms, black puddings, a foot-rule, a tailor's scissors, a book-binder's press, knives and forks crossed, tobacco pipes, books with wooden covers, bucket handles, pot hooks, dove cotes, in short, any thing which is at hand and can be readily brought into play. (No doubt that they are all equally valuable.) Nevertheless, there is a difference between the rods, inasmuch as some use only one rod for the discovery of all sorts of metals, some use a distinct rod for each kind of metal, and some again use only one sort of wooden rod, which is broken off from the parent stem at different periods, according to the prevailing influence of the planets. As to the period at which these rods should be cut there is a difference of opinion amongst the rod diviners; some assert that this should be done on a Sunday (on the old principle, we suppose, of “the better the day the better the deed"), after the new moon, and early in the |