Note AM — Chapter VI · GENESIS OF THE REACTION OF THE HORSE

G. Franzius,[99] privy counselor of the admiralty, master of the dry-dock at Kiel, is responsible for the undeserved revival of the ancient belief, long buried by science, that the divining branch is put into motion solely as the result of the influence of hidden springs or treasures, and without any agency in the person who is holding it. The untenability of this theory comes home to us most forcibly when we recall how various are the kinds of things which have been discovered by means of the branch. First there is gold and water, which are the only ones mentioned by Mr. Franzius. The water can be thus discovered only when it flows below ground, say that which is passing through the mains of a city, whereas the water of the Rhine or the Elbe would have no effect on the branch. Besides gold, every other kind of metal has been supposedly located by the branch,—as well as coal, gypsum, ochre, red-chalk sulphur and petroleum,—according to the desire of the one searching. Thus, the very same branch that just a moment ago was influenced by the least bit of underground water, may remain unaffected by the presence of a large body of water, if in the meantime I have changed my plan and decide to search for coal or for gold. But that is not all. The branch will point out a murderer or the place where a murder has been committed, it will discover the thief or his trail, as well as the things stolen or merely touched by him. It will indicate where the boundary-stone that has been moved, ought to stand. The branch further discloses the sins of the persons concerning whom it is consulted, as well as their talents and abilities, the journeys they have made and the wounds they have received. It will indicate whether or not a person has money and how much. It can announce what absent persons are doing and what apparel they are wearing, and of what color it is. It will give information on theological, medical, zoological, and botanical questions. In fine, no matter what the question, it will never fail of an answer.[100, 101]

The impossibility of explaining the phenomena in a purely physical way was recognized at a very early date. For a long time the activity of the users of the divining rod seems to have been restricted to the search for metals. The first (or one of the first) to raise his voice against it was the learned G. Agricola[102] (1556), and after him there were many who all wrote more or less independently of one another. Aside from swindle and chance, it was usually believed that sorcery of the agency of Beelzebub was involved, and for that reason the Church has repeatedly forbidden the use of the divining-rod. But even in the 17th century we find some who believed that it was imagination alone that moved the person's hand, and with it the rod,[103, 104] ("fortassis etiam phantasia manum in motum concitante"); and that points out the essentials of the solution of the phenomenon, and we will not go into the matter here in detail. A number of complex psychological problems arising in connection with it are still waiting to be solved, but this much appears certain; the staff or branch plays no other part in the whole process than that which is served by the three levers in the tests described in Chapter IV (pages 116 ff.),—they simply magnify the expressive movements of the diviner. And so we can understand why the instruments serving as rod might be so varied. Hay-forks, pickets, clock-springs and pendulums, scissors and pliers have been used. A knife and fork or two pipes, fastened together, an open book, and even a sausage, grasped at both ends and thus bent together somewhat,—all have served the purpose equally well. We can understand, too, how some adepts are able to achieve the same degree of success—for they do succeed beyond a doubt—without any rod whatever, but simply by placing the index fingers end to end and bending them somewhat, and even by merely groping about with hands outstretched or folded before them.[106]