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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
225
In
Italy
cumin
is
given
to
pigeons
for
the
purpose
of
taming
them,
and
a
curious
superstition
is
that
of
the
"divining-rod,"
with
"its
versatile
sensibility
to
water,
ore,
treasure
and
thieves,"
and
one
whose
history
is
apparently
as
remote
as
it
is
widespread.
Francis
Lenormant,
in
his
"Chaldean
Magic,"
mentions
the
divining-rods
used
by
the
Magi,
wherewith
they
foretold
the
future
by
throwing
little
sticks
of
tamarisk-wood,
and
adds
that
divination
by
wands
was
known
and
practised
in
Babylon,
"and
that
this
was
even
the
most
ancient
mode
of
divination
used
in
the
time
of
the
Accadians."
Among
the
Hindus,
even
in
the
Vedic
period,
magic
wands
were
in
use,
and
the
practice
still
survives
in
China,
where
the
peach-tree
is
in
demand.
Tracing
its
antecedent
history
in
this
country,
it
appears
that
the
Druids
were
in
the
habit
of
cutting
their
divining-rods
from
the
apple-tree;
and
various
notices
of
this
once
popular
fallacy
occur
from
time
to
time,
in
the
literature
of
bygone
years.
The
hazel
was
formerly
famous
for
its
powers
of
discernment,
and
it
is
still
held
in
repute
by
the
Italians.
Occasionally,
too,
as
already
noticed,
the
divining-rod
was
employed
for
the
purpose
of
detecting
the
locality
of
water,
as
is
still
the
case
in
Wiltshire.
An
interesting
case
was
quoted
some
years
ago
in
the
Quarterly
Review
(xxii.
273).
A
certain
Lady
N----is
here
stated
to
have
convinced
Dr.
Hutton
of
her
possession
of
this
remarkable
gift,
and
by
means
of
it
to
have
indicated
to
him
the
existence
of
a
spring
of
water
in
one
of
his
fields
adjoining
the
Woolwich
College,
which,
in
consequence
of
the
discovery,
he
was
enabled
to
sell
to
the
college
at
a
higher
price.
This
power
Lady
N----repeatedly
exhibited
before
credible
witnesses,
and
the
Quarterly
Review
of
that
day
considered
the
fact
indisputable.
The
divining-rod
has
long
been
in
repute
among
Cornish
miners,
and
Pryce,
in
his
"Mineralogia
Cornubiensis,"
says
that
many
mines
have
been
discovered
by
this
means;
but,
after
giving
a
minute
account
of
cutting,
tying,
and
using
it,
he
rejects
it,
because,
"Cornwall
is
so
plentifully
stored
with
tin
and
copper
lodes,
that
some
accident
every
week
discovers
to
us
a
fresh
vein."
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