Abstract
The religious dimension of the treasure hunt declined as the nineteenth century progressed. The belief in ghosts lost ground or transformed into spiritualism and an interest in the more or less vulgarized forms of what would become known as ‘parapsychology’.1 Without the ghosts who needed to be redeemed, the religious overtones of treasure hunting disappeared. Even news about treasure in an ecclesiastical context was void of spiritual meaning.
Depositum custodi!
(Montague Rhodes James: The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, 1894)
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Notes
J. Smith (1882) The Pearl of Great Price. Extracts from the History of Joseph Smith (Liverpool: Carrington), pp. 62–68. This publication was based on a text that Smith published in 1838.
L.B. Cake (1899) Peepstone Joe and the Peck Manuscript (New York: Cake).
D. Whitmer (1887) An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond: Whitmer), p. 12.
O. Hyde (1842) Ein Ruf aus der Wüste (Frankfort: Hyde), pp. 13–27.
A. Hellwig (1971) “Ein neunfacher Kindesmord zum Zwecke des Schätzehebens”, Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie und Kriminalistik, XXIV (1906, reprinted Nendeln), pp. 125–130, here pp. 125–126.
B. Jones (1904) “Stories from Leitrim and Cavan”, Folklore, XV, pp. 336–341, here pp. 340–341. Of course, we have to be very careful here. Nineteenth- century folklore research was rather keen on finding vestiges of supposedly age-old religious practices, including sacrifices, in local legends.
J.G.T. Graesse (1960) Bibliotheca magica et pneumatica (Leipzig: Engelmann 1843, reprinted Hildesheim: Olms), pp. 37–38, 64, 87. 14. Beck, “Bibliothek”.
F.C.B. Ave-Lallemont (1858–62) Das deutsche Gaunerthum, 4 vols (Leipzig: Brockhaus), vol. 2, p. 269.
E. Aigner (1916) “Vorwort”, Schriften des Verbands zur Klärung der Wünschelrutenfrage, VII, pp. 3–7.
G. Franzius (1916) Schriftwechsel des Verbandes mit dem Reichs-Kolonialamt, Schriften des Verbands zur Klärung der Wünschelrutenfrage, VII, pp. 11–123.
J. Mullins & Sons (1894) The Divining Rod. Its History, Truthfulness, and Practical Utility (Colerne: Mullilns).
J. Mullins & Sons (1914) The Divining Rod. Its History, Truthfulness, and Practical Utility (Bath: Mullins), p. II.
Himmler even tried to pressurize a so-called alchemist into making gold, M. Kater (2006) Das Ahnenerbe der SS 1934–1945 (Munich: Oldenbourg), pp. 220–223.
G.J. Schäffer (1801) Beschreibung derjenigen Jauner, Zigeuner, Straßen-Räuber…(Tübingen: Schramm), pp. 77, 80.
A. Hellwig (1906) “Die Beziehung zwischen Aberglauben und Strafrecht”, Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde, X, pp. 22–44.
J. Devlin (1987) The Superstitious Mind. French Peasants and the Supernatural (New Haven: Yale UP), pp. 176–177.
R. Furneaux (1954) Fact, Fake, or Fable? (London: Cassell), pp. 1–12.
S. Wilson (1976) Oklahoma Treasures and Treasure Tales (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), pp. 39–40, 46–47, 113–127.
B. Beatty (1960) A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales and Traditions (London: Edmund Ward), pp. 57–76.
E. Fletcher (1973) Treasure Hunting. Profitable Fun for the Family (London: Blanford).
D. Villanueava (2005) The Successful Treasure Hunter’s Essential Dowsing Manual: How to Develop your Latent Skills to Find Treasure in Abundance (Whitstable: True Treasure).
D. Villanueva (2009) The Successful Treasure Hunter’s Secret Manual: Discovering Treasure Auras in the Digital Age (Whitstable: True Treasure);see also Metaldetecingworld (2009) http://www.metaldetectingworld.blogspot.com/16.6.09; http://truetreasure.co.uk, accessed 4 October 2009.
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© 2012 Johannes Dillinger
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Dillinger, J. (2012). Treasure Hunts in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. In: Magical Treasure Hunting in Europe and North America. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230353312_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230353312_8
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