discovering veins of precious metal, and hidden sums of money and
jewels, I have not the least doubt. Some said that the rod turned only
in the hands of persons who had been born in particular months of the
year; hence astrologers had recourse to planetary influences when they
would procure a talisman. Others declared that the properties of the
rod were either an effect of chance or the fraud of the holder, or the
work of the devil...."

The worthy and learned Mr. Knickerbocker might have gone on to quote
authorities by the dozen. This weighty argument of his is not
delivered with a wink to the reader. He is engaged in no solemn
foolery. If one desires to find pirates' gold, it is really essential
to believe in the divining rod and devoutly obey its magic messages.
This is proven to the hilt by that very scholarly Abbe Le Lorrain de
Vallemont of France whose exhaustive volume was published in 1693 with
the title of _La Physique Occulte_, or "Treatise on the Divining Rod
and its Uses for the Discovery of Springs of Water, Metallic Veins,
Hidden Treasure, Thieves, and Escaped Murderers." In his preface he
politely sneers at those scholars who consider the study of the
divining rod as an idle pursuit and shows proper vexation toward the
ignorance and prejudice which are hostile to such researches.

The author then indicates that the action of the divining rod is to be
explained by the theory of Corpuscular Philosophy,[1] and by way of
concrete argument, refers to the most famous case in the ancient annals
of this art.

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[Illustration: Methods of manipulating the diving rod to find buried
treasure. (_From La Physique Occulte, first edition, 1596_.)]

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"It seems to me that my work would have been incomplete, had I not
_seen_ Jacques Aymar, and that the objection might have been raised
that I had only argued about statements not generally accepted. This
now famous man came to Paris on January 21st, 1693. I saw him two or
three hours a day for nearly a month, and my readers may rest assured
that during that time I examined him very closely. It is a positive
fact that the divining rod turned in his hands in the direction of
springs of water, precious metals, thieves, and escaped murderers. He
does not know why. If he knew the physical cause, and had sufficient
intellec