BOOK II.

4i

sleep to watchmen and awoke slumberers 24 . Therefore it seems that thedivining rod passed to the mines from its impure origin with the magicians.Then when good men shrank with horror from the incantations and rejectedthem, the twig was retained by the unsophisticated common miners, andin searching for new veins some traces of these ancient usages remain.

But since truly the twigs of the miners do move, albeit they do notgenerally use incantations, some say this movement is caused by thepower of the veins, others say that it depends on the manipulation, andstill others think that the movement is due to both these causes. But, intruth, all those objects which are endowed with the power of attractiondo not twist things in circles, but attract them directly to themselves ; forinstance, the magnet does not turn the iron, but draws it directly to itself,and amber rubbed until it is warm does not bend straws about, but simplydraws them to itself. If the power of the veins were of a similar nature tothat of the magnet and the amber, the twig would not so much twist asmove once only, in a semi-circle, and be drawn directly to the vein, and unlessthe strength of the man who holds the twig were to resist and oppose theforce of the vein, the twig would be brought to the ground; wherefore,since this is not the case, it must necessarily follow that the manipulationis the cause of the twig’s twisting motion. It is a conspicuous fact thatthese cunning manipulators do not use a straight twig, but a forked onecut from a hazel bush, or from some other wood equally flexible, so that if itbe held in the hands, as they are accustomed to hold it, it turns in a circlefor any man wherever he stands. Nor is it strange that the twig does notturn when held by the inexperienced, because they either grasp the forks ofthe twig too tightly or hold them too loosely. Nevertheless, these thingsgive rise to the faith among common miners that veins are discovered bythe use of twigs, because whilst using these they do accidentally discoversome ; but it more often happens that they lose their labour, and althoughthey might discover a vein, they become none the less exhausted indigging useless trenches than do the miners who prospect in an unfortunatelocality. Therefore a miner, since we think he ought to be a good andserious man, should not make use of an enchanted twig, because if he isPrudent and skilled in the natural signs, he understands that a forked stickls of no use to him, for as I have said before, there are the natural indica-tions of the veins which he can see for himself without the help of twigs.So if Nature or chance should indicate a locality suitable for mining, theminer should dig his trenches there; if no vein appears he must dignumerous trenches until he discovers an outcrop of a vein.

A vena dilatata is rarely discovered by men’s labour, but usually someforce or other reveals it, or sometimes it is discovered by a shaft or a tunnel°n a vena profunda? 5 .

, . 24 0dyssey xxiv., I, etc. The Caduceus of Hermes had also the power of turninglungs to gold, and it is interesting to note that in its oldest form, as the insignia of heraldsa nd of ambassadors, it had two prongs.

26 In a general way venae profundae were fissure veins and venae dilatatae were sheetedeposits. For description see Book III.