It is sufficiently remarkable that the rod, besides being an emblem of authority, is also an instrument of the supernatural.
It is so simple an instrument that it is within the scope of the mechanical genius of the most degraded savages, and therefore it is quite unnecessary to suppose that the idea of it was ever transmitted from race to race.
In South Africa, Mr. Tylor has proved that the bull-roarer is employed to call the men only to the celebration of sacred functions, and the instrument itself is described in Theal's Kaffir Folklore.
Now, the same peoples who still employ the bull-roarer as a sacred instrument also bedaub their bodies with clay, for no apparent reason unless it may be to frighten their enemies or repel intruders.
And as an instrument employed in religious rites or mysteries, it is found in New Mexico, in Australia, in New Zealand and in Africa, to this day.
From this it may be seen that while the divining-rod was a familiar instrument 450 years before Christ, it was also then disbelieved in by some.
Yet in the greatness of the cause, may we securely expect a gift of strength even to so frail an instrument as I am.
She who is now disguised in that attire is no Egyptian, but a true Samaritan, who hath been the means of working much good in the evil times past, and is likely to be a useful instrument in the troubled times yet to come.
When Sammy left him to retire for the night, her father picked up the violin again, and placed it beneath his chin as if to play; but he did not touch the strings, and soon hung the instrument in its place above the mantel.
When you're a young man who flies about the country in a motor, 'The Pines' vehicle must be an instrument of torture.
I could play upon him as though he had been a little instrumentof strings.
He implies, therefore, that Baasha had some Divine sanction for the revolution which he headed; and certainly in his slaughter of the House of Jeroboam he was the instrument of a Divine decree.
Language, at the best, is an imperfect and ever-varying instrument of thought.
Floating and kicking his way over to the Tele-screen, he quickly switched the instrument on.
After a while he switched the instrument off and swam triumphantly back to his bunk.
Cruelty in all its hideous forms is, indeed, commonly set forth as Spain's only instrument of rule in her sixteenth century empire.
This is an aspect of excommunications usually missed, but well deserving of study by those who resent the use of such an instrument by ecclesiastical authorities.
He is the inventor of the pantograph or copying instrument for drawings, and, being of an ingenious inventive disposition, constructed a number of instruments for astronomical investigation.
JACOB'S STAFF, an instrument for taking altitudes and distances.
As long as a man is self-active, he is incapable of receiving the influence of the Holy Ghost; for this purpose he must hold himself like an instrument in a purely passive state.
This can be maintained by a judicious combination and regulation of the powers, so that by the slightest touch upon this instrument it may produce the greatest effect.
She did not delay, therefore, to tell my father, and point out to him the place where the magical instrument was kept.
Yet, as the diversities of landscape painting show the different views which may be taken of one nature, even so the view taken by my sober instrument may possibly show something that has escaped another.
The harp, however, is an instrument that owes its prestige partly to its beauty of form, partly to the romance of its traditions, from King David to the Welsh bards.
Once more the pure Briton and the mixed if not fused English engaged, Bacchus for instrument this time, Bacchus for arbiter of the fray.
And this capability of being played upon, rendered her, it is to be observed, a far more valuable instrument in the hands of those who touched the keys than if she had been a mere accomplice of imposture.
Several sows and an indefinite number of sucking pigs could not make a greater noise, and Tom himself declares he studied the instrument in a pigsty, which he maintains gave the first notion of an organ.
The example was followed by his fellows, and the bugler, lifting his instrument to his lips, gave one long well-sustained blast.
Also any crops to or in which the undersigned has or may have any interest, right, claim or title in Lowndes County or elsewhere during and for each succeeding year until the indebtedness secured by this instrument is fully paid.
There is no lien or encumbrance upon any property conveyed by this instrument except that held by Jones and Co.
This instrument was kept in a case in Mrs. Nagsby's little room, which was on the ground-floor back, and looked on to a series of dingy walls.
What right, Sir, have the authors of such an instrument as this to raise their voices against the insolence and intolerance of the Vatican?
Look at the world, then, a hundred years after the seal of Nicholas had been affixed to the instrument which called your College into existence.
Man, man is the great instrument that produces wealth.
He tells us that our Tariff is to be made an instrument for rewarding the justice and humanity of some Foreign Governments, and for punishing the barbarity of others.
Where this blow was to fall was not decided up to the last moment, but the instrument which was to deliver it was prepared with all the care possible under the circumstances.
The chapeau chinois was formerly an adjunct in military bands, but never in the orchestra, where an instrument of somewhat similar shape, often confused with it and known as the Glockenspiel (q.
The question is often asked: What sort ofinstrument is Chinese for the expression of thought?
The instrumentcan be left unexpressed, and a person can be said to overlay a child, i.
He gave one weak blow on the side of the bell, and the instrument fell out of his nerveless hands upon the bench.
He rapped once--every player seized his instrument as though it were a musket.
Savage praises the interruption and continues: "And so ordered every man to tune up his artillery a half-hour before the performance, and carry his instrument in and lay it on his chair.
Then he kissed the back of the violin, muttered a prayer, and locked the instrument in its case.
But since that evening all tuning-up is done on the stage, and no man lets his instrument get out of his hands after he gets it right.
Man is the instrumentof Deity--through man does Deity create.
In the interval a wag entered and threw every instrument out of key.
Immediately removing the instrument and substituting his tongue, he drained every drop of spend that she emitted.
