nto words, and supplied an answer to important questions.

Belomancy was a kind of divination by arrows, practised among various
nations in the East, but chiefly among the Arabians. It was performed
in different ways. One was to mark a parcel of arrows, and put eleven
or more of them into a case. These were drawn out, and according to
their marks future events were judged. Another way was to have but
three arrows, upon one of which was written an injunction to do a
certain thing; upon another a warning against doing it; and upon the
third there was no writing. These were put into a quiver, out of which
one of the arrows was drawn at random. If it happened to be the one
with the injunction, the thing regarding which there was a
consultation was done; if it chanced to be the arrow with the warning,
the matter was let alone; but if the arrow without an inscription, a
second drawing took place. Kings going out to war frequently consulted
with arrows and images, and according to the drawing or flight of an
arrow was it determined which city or town should be first besieged.
The king of Babylon resorted to Belomancy before assaulting
Jerusalem. When he came to a place where two roads met, one led to the
city of Rabbath, and the other to Jerusalem. There he wrote the names
of the two cities upon several arrows which were mixed together
promiscuously in a quiver, and a boy who was unacquainted with the
matter drew out one, and the name Jerusalem being on it, the king
determined to lead his army towards that city.

Divination by means of rods prevailed among the Magi, Chaldaeans, and
Scythians, whence it passed to the Sclavonians, and thence to the
Germans. The women among the Alani gathered straight rods or wands,
and used them in their superstition. In Sheppard's _Epigrams_ we find:

"Some sorcerers do boast they have a rod,
Gathered with vows and sacrifice,
And borne about will strangely nod
To hidden treasure where it lies;
Mankind is sure that rod divine,
For to the wealthiest ever they incline."

The notion still prevails in England and elsewhere, that water and
precious treasure could be discovered, though far below the surface of
the earth, by carefully and skilfully handling the divining rod. Men
of scientific knowledge have been believers in the occult power
ascribed to the divining rod, while others, who have considered the
subject, regard the supposed power of this rod as a delusion