82 NOTES ON ESSEX DIALECT AND FOLK-LORE.
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 top 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."
We find in "The Virtues of Sid Harriet, the Magician's Rod,"
by Swift, 1710 :
" They tell us something strange and odd,
About a certain magic rod,
That, bending down, its top divines
Where'er the soil has golden mines.
Where there are none it stands erect,
Scorning to show the least respect."
But the most extraordinary treatise on this subject is an old book,
written in French in the seventeenth century : "La Physique Occult
ou traite de la Baguette Divinatoire des sources d'eaux, des mineres,
des tresors cachez, des voleurs, et des meutriers fugitifs, avec des
principes qui expliquent les phenomenes le plus obscurs de la nature.
Par M. L. L. de Vallemont, Ph.D.," illustrated with rudely-drawn
woodcuts. Other references to works on the subject might be given,
but those mentioned are the most important. Whatever may be the
merits of the Divining-rod in the opinion of the educated and
scientific its efficacy is very generally credited in the coal and other
mining districts, and persons who have the reputation of being
skilled in its use are had recourse to with as much faith as is the
"wise man" or "cunning woman" of the neighbourhood in affairs
of another description. In Cornwall the miners place much confi-
dence in the indication of the rod, and even educated and intelligent
men ofttimes rely on its supposed virtues. But Cornwall is so
plentifully stored with tin and copper lodes that some accident
frequently discovers a fresh vein. In Lancashire and Cumberland
the power of the rod is much believed in, and also in many other
parts of England.
Amongst the many virtues ascribed to the rod is that of detect-
ing water springs, and the mode of use is as follows :—
The rod is a little forked stick of hazel or some other wood. The
operator takes one of the branches in each hand, and, extending the
shaft or stem horizontally from his body, moves slowly over the spot
which is supposed to conceal the spring of water or the vein of coal,