Chapter XIII

THE DIVINING OR "WISH"-ROD, AND SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING TREES AND PLANTS.

Searching for hidden treasure at Cuerdale, near Preston. Midnight
excavations on the site of the Roman station at Walton, near
Preston. How to prepare a divining rod. The rowan tree. Divination
by upright rods. Recent attempt to discover metallic ores by the
divining rod. Anecdote of M. Linnaeus. Form of the wish-rod. The
mystic number three. The mistletoe. Neptune's Trident. The
horseshoe, a divining instrument. Other divining instruments. The
mandrake. Resemblance in form to the human body. The caduceus or
the rod of Hermes. Modern conjurer's magic wands. The palasa tree
or the "imperial _mimosa_" of the East. Aryan legend of its
lightning origin. The mountain ash, the thorn, etc. Bishop Heber's
anecdote respecting the Hindoo form of the superstition. African
sacred trees. Recent instances of this superstition in England,
Scotland, and Australia. The pastoral crook, and the lituus, or
staff, of the ancient augurs, etc. Phallic symbols. Novel use of
the Bible. The divining rod but of recent importation into
Cornwall. Recent instances of divination or "dowzing" for water.
Finding drowned bodies. "Corpse candles." Page 252

CHAPTER XIV.

WELL WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH WATER.

Well worship. Medical virtues of water. Symbol of purity. Sacred
wells. St. Helen's well, at Brindle, near Preston. Curious examples
of local corruption of names. Pin dropping. Pin wells in France,
Wales, Scotland, Northumberland, and the West of England. A form of
divination. Protection against hanging. Other curious forms of this
superstition. Curing rickets in children and insanity. Reported
miraculous cures. Well dressing. Recent death of Margery Grant, a
"Scotch witch," who worked cures with holy water. The deification
of rivers and streams. Ancient lake dwellings, Healing lake in
Scotland. Bottomless pools. Stagnant water. Jenny Greenteeth.
"Nickar, the soulless." Scotch kelpies. Burns's "Address to the
Deil." Superstition on the Solway. African superstition of this
class. Page 267

CHAPTER XV.