could then be shown that some of these spirits survive among the lower
beings of the mythology of what the Germans call a cultur-volk like the
Greeks or Romans. It could also be proved that much of the narrative
element in the classic epics is to be found in a popular or childish form
in primitive fairy tales. The question would then come to be, Have the
higher mythologies been developed, by artistic poets, out of the
materials of a race which remained comparatively untouched by culture; or
are the lower spirits, and the more simple and puerile forms of myth,
degradations of the inventions of a cultivated class?

THE DIVINING ROD.

There is something remarkable, and not flattering to human sagacity, in
the periodical resurrection of superstitions. Houses, for example, go on
being 'haunted' in country districts, and no educated man notices the
circumstance. Then comes a case like that of the Drummer of Tedworth, or
the Cock Lane Ghost, and society is deeply moved, philosophers plunge
into controversy, and he who grubs among the dusty tracts of the past
finds a world of fugitive literature on forgotten bogies. Chairs move
untouched by human hands, and tables walk about in lonely castles of
Savoy, and no one marks them, till a day comes when the furniture of some
American cottage is similarly afflicted, and then a shoddy new religion
is based on the phenomenon. The latest revival among old beliefs is
faith in the divining rod. 'Our liberal shepherds give it a _shorter_
name,' and so do our conservative peasants, calling the 'rod of Jacob'
the 'twig.' To 'work the twig' is rural English for the craft of
Dousterswivel in the 'Antiquary,' and perhaps from this comes our slang
expression to 'twig,' or divine, the hidden meaning of another. Recent
correspondence in the newspapers has proved that, whatever may be the
truth about the 'twig,' belief in its powers is still very prevalent.
Respectable people are not ashamed to bear signed witness of its
miraculous powers of detecting springs of water and secret mines. It is
habitually used by the miners in the Mendips, as Mr. Woodward found ten
years ago; and forked hazel divining rods from the Mendips are a
recognised part of ethnological collections. There are two ways of
investigating the facts or fancies about the rod. One is to examine it
in its actual operation--a task of considerable labour, which will
doubtless be undertaken by the Society for Psychical R