tolerably clear understanding of the original nature of the
divining-rod. Its power of revealing treasures has been
sufficiently explained; and its affinity for water results so
obviously from the character of the lightning-myth as to need
no further comment. But its power of detecting criminals still
remains to be accounted for.

In Greek mythology, the being which detects and punishes crime
is the Erinys, the prototype of the Latin Fury, figured by
late writers as a horrible monster with serpent locks. But
this is a degradation of the original conception. The name
Erinys did not originally mean Fury, and it cannot be
explained from Greek sources alone. It appears in Sanskrit as
Saranyu, a word which signifies the light of morning creeping
over the sky. And thus we are led to the startling conclusion
that, as the light of morning reveals the evil deeds done
under the cover of night, so the lovely Dawn, or Erinys, came
to be regarded under one aspect as the terrible detector and
avenger of iniquity. Yet startling as the conclusion is, it is
based on established laws of phonetic change, and cannot be
gainsaid.

But what has the avenging daybreak to do with the lightning
and the divining-rod? To the modern mind the association is
not an obvious one: in antiquity it was otherwise. Myths of
the daybreak and myths of the lightning often resemble each
other so closely that, except by a delicate philological
analysis, it is difficult to distinguish the one from the
other. The reason is obvious. In each case the phenomenon to
be explained is the struggle between the day-god and one of