Divining-rod Sentence Examples

After a cold and snowy night it needed a divining-rod to find it.

Thus the Zulu says to the ancestral ghost, "Help me or you will feed on nettles"; whilst the still more primitive Australian exclaims to the "dead hand" that he carries about with him as a kind of divining-rod, "Guide me aright, or I throw you to the dogs."

These more specialized actions are most typically seen in the Divining Rod (q.v.; see also Table-Turning), which indicates the presence of water and is used among the uncivilized to trace criminals.

By Vallemont, who wrote towards the end of the 17th century, the divining-rod of hazel, or "baguette divinatoire," is described as instrumental in the pursuit of criminals.

The Jesuit Vaniere, who flourished in the early part of the 18th century, in the Praedium rusticum (pp. 12, 13, new ed., Toulouse, 1742) amusingly relates the manner in which he exposed the chicanery of one who pretended by the aid of a hazel divining-rod to point out hidden water-courses and gold.

An arpa or divining-rod was laid on a definite spot, the drum beaten by a hammer, and conclusions drawn from the position taken up by the arpa.

In 1768, recognized as a man who had both the ability and the means for a scientific career, he was nominated adjoint chimiste to the Academy, and in that capacity made numerous reports on the most diverse subjects, from the theory of colours to water-supply and from invalid chairs to mesmerism and the divining rod.

I think that the richest vein is somewhere hereabouts; so by the divining-rod and thin rising vapors I judge; and here I will begin to mine.