Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1917-03-23

discovering buried treasure, matter
of rather common interest in those
days, when the practice of burying
money and plate for safe keeping was
very general. 1t was introduced into
England by German miners during the
reign of Elizabeth (l55S-lG03), and be-
fore the end of the seventeenth century
it had spread through the countries of
Europe. Everywhere it aroused con
troversy. The rules prescribed for the
cutting of the twig partook largely Of
heather sorccry and astrology. There
were indeed, to some extent, uncOn-
scious "reminiscences of the old Scan
dinavian and even the Aryan my
thology But this heather influence was
offset when the rod was duly Christian
lied by baptism, being laid for this
purpose in the bed with a newly bap-
tized child. by whose Christian name
it was afterward addressed. 1t is
readily conceivable that the motive for
surrounding this practice with a re-
ligious atmosphere might not have been
altogether a belief in its divine char
actcr, for at that time anyone found
engaged in mysterious works was III
danger of being charged with sorcery
and burned to DEATH
The divining rod continued to be Il
favorite subject with alchcmistic writ,
ers until about 1860, when a new turn
of affairs was brought about by n
Jesuit father who denounced it as am
instrument controlled by the devil. The
subject was then taken up by the
church, and for more than 100 years
it was hotly debated by churchmen.
Some approved of it and authorized it's
use on church property; others CON
demncd it and threatened those who
used it with accommodation. In 1902,
the year of the Salem witchcraft, its
notoriety was greatly increased by the
arrest and execution of n criminal
through the agency of peasant who
used a divining rod. Interest in this
ease was intense and widespread and
called forth a large amount of litcra-
ture. As late ms l703 this peasant was
employed to point out with his divin-
ing rod Protestants for massacre, I'M
der the plea of punishment for crimes
they had committed. The divining rod
was iii some respects closely related to
witchcraft, as is suggested By the use
of lncantations in connection with di-
vining, and to this relationship may
be ascribed in some measure the
strengthening of belief in it. Witch
craft at that time had become frenzy,
and anything which by any stretch of
the imagination could be suspected of
implication with witchcraft became n
! subject of discussion and the basis Of
| firm opinions and beliefs. In l70l,
however, the Inquisition issued n de-
cree against the further use of the di-
vining rod in criminal prosecution, and
this use of the device rapidly came to
an end.
In the later part of the eighteenth
century an attempt was made to eX-
plain water witching as an electric
phenomenon, and later it was discussed
as a psychic phenomenon. At almost
every step in the advance of science
some one has attempted to explain its
supposed operation by means of the
latest scientific theories.
| Before the present war there were
several societies in Germany whose sole
object was said to be the study of the
divining rod. In 1910 the department
of agriculture of France appointed a
committee to investigate the subject