THE DIVINING ROD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 141, 13 June 1912, Page 8

THE DIVINING ROD.

AS A DETECTIVE OF MURDER.

\ commission has been appointed m Germany to investigate the working of the divining rod. The commission will only concern itself "with the rode discover, of water, leaving on one side its once "supposed power to track down criminals. This, the French Journal dcs Debats think., is a mistake, in view of the increasing difficulty in punishing crime. It will be news to most people that the divining rod was ever used as an instrument of justice, but its vogue in this department of life was once tremendous, and several high officials of Church a_id State have testified to its miraculous power. Major Eichardeon's bloodhounds, and even the far-famed Odessa police dog Spitz, cannot be mentioned in the same breath as the humble twig in the hands of a sensitive person, if- all the tales are true. Take-the foUowing one as an example:— A wine seller, and 'his wife were found dead in their shop at Lyons, killed with a billhook, and their savings had disappeared. N-o one had witnessed the -crime,-and. all. inquiries proved utterly futile. Then one of their neighbours summoned from Dauphine a peasant named., Jacques. Aymar, who had a. reputation for...being.able .to follow up;the track of robbers and recover stolen property. He came, took a twig oat of a brocim, and went into the shop. "When he stood-over the place -where the-bodies had been found the twig began to twist about. At that a Dr Panthot felt Aymar's pulse, and pronounced him to be suffering from fever. Aymar himself said lie felt deadly sick. However, he overcame the * feeling, aud followed the lead of his twig, which took him along several streets, into (he court of the Archbishop's palate, ovel- tbe bridge spanning the Rhone, and down the right bank of the river, until the magistrates who were following began to gasp for breath. Finally, tbey were guided to the house of a gardener, where Ayioar declared • that the-iurderers, three in number, had sat down and had a drink. The twig, it was said, even directed him to tbe bottle from which they had drunk. Two children confirmed the statement that three-men bad stopped there a moment. However, night was coming on; cverybodv was tired, and the, search was | broken off. Then M. Pantbot proposed 'as a. test that the fatal billhook should' be buried with several billhooks in a I garden. Tbe twig immediately discoveried it. and the doctors scepticism vanished. Next day, and for some days after, the twig took the party down the Rhone till they eventually reached-Bean-.caire," where the movements of the twig indicated that tbe murderers had separated, but it steered for the prison. Here only half an hour before a young humpback bad been lodged for a trivial misdemeanour. The twig led Aymar to this' 1 fellow, and he. was charged with crime. 'He stoutly, denied it, foht. 0% torture- being applied- confessed, and- wit*. ... Nt .+0 tfo* tsJIo-ks.