ut 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 practi