esearch; the other,
and easier, way is to study the appearances of the divining wand in
history, and that is what we propose to do in this article.

When a superstition or belief is widely spread in Europe, as the faith in
the divining rod certainly is (in Germany rods are hidden under babies'
clothes when they are baptized), we naturally expect to find traces of it
in ancient times and among savages all over the modern world. We have
already examined, in 'The Bull-Roarer,' a very similar example. We saw
that there is a magical instrument--a small fish-shaped piece of thin
flat wood tied to a thong--which, when whirled in the air, produces a
strange noise, a compound of roar and buzz. This instrument is sacred
among the natives of Australia, where it is used to call together the
men, and to frighten away the women from the religious mysteries of the
males. The same instrument is employed for similar purposes in New
Mexico, and in South Africa and New Zealand--parts of the world very
widely distant from each other, and inhabited by very diverse races. It
has also been lately discovered that the Greeks used this toy, which they
called [Greek], in the Mysteries of Dionysus, and possibly it may be
identical with the mystica vannus Iacchi (Virgil, 'Georgics,' i. 166).
The conclusion drawn by the ethnologist is that this object, called
turndun by the Australians, is a very early savage invention, probably
discovered and applied to religious purposes in various separate centres,
and retained from the age of savagery in the mystic rites of Greeks and
perhaps of Romans. Well, do we find anything analogous in the case of
the divining rod?

Future researches may increase our knowledge, but at present little or
nothing is known of the divining rod in classical ages, and not very much
(though that little is significant) among uncivilised races. It is true
that in all countries rods or wands, the Latin virga, have a magical
power. Virgil obtained his mediaeval repute as a wizard because his name
was erroneously connected with virgula, the magic wand. But we do not
actually know that the ancient wand of the enchantress Circe, in Homer,
or the wand of Hermes, was used, like the divining rod, to indicate the
whereabouts of hidden wealth or water. In the Homeric hymn to Hermes
(line 529), Apollo thus describes the caduceus, or wand of Hermes:
'Thereafter will I give thee a lovely wand of wealth and riches, a golden
wand with t