Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/170

156 Divining-rod of the Malays appears to me to be the close counterpart of the Divining-sticks of the Zulus, Maoris, Melanesians, and many others; and I think I may say that it would not be surprising to find them all worked more or less on the same general principles.

One point that I wish to bring out in the case of the Divining-rod is that the spirit which agitates the rod is believed by the Malays to enter the magician's head, and descending through his arm and hand, to take up its quarters in the rod itself, and is not supposed to remain, as has sometimes been thought, in the body of the magician so as to guide his arm or hand. The oscillation originates with the spirit in the rod, the magician being obliged to follow so long as he grasps it, whithersoever the spirit in the rod may lead him. It is obvious from this description that a conception of the Malay Divining-rod differs widely from a conception of the Divining-rod to be met with in Europe, where the "dowser" regards the rod merely as a convenient external index of his own inner consciousness, so that his finding water does not really depend on his use of a hazel-twig, and any other kind of equally long and light object would do. I believe this is not the orthodox water-finder's opinion, but at least it is a reasonable one; and the point is that whereas in this case it is the involuntary muscular action of the man that moves the rod, the Malay idea is that the spirit in the rod, so to speak, moves the man, dragging him after it to the spot where the treasure lies hid; which is also the view taken by the majority, and perhaps the less reasonable, of the dowsers.

The cases of the Divining-bowl and the Ring are a little different from the preceding, as they are clear instances in which the animated object is neither of animal nor vegetable origin. Nevertheless they are entirely in keeping with Malay ideas about inanimate objects, i.e. that they