44 Charms
dig a spring or a well. This person, if you employ him, walks about your premises with a branch of witch-hazel in his hand. At such spots as water can be struck without deep digging, the hazel branch droops downward, even if the medium attempts to prevent its doing so. By the way the twig twists and turns can be determined the exact spot where it will be best for you to dig.
A witch-hazel crotch is the favorite instrument of the water-finders. But there is a variation in preference. Some claim it doesn’t matter what sort of a tree the crotch comes from. One old man I heard of used an apple-tree crotch. He demonstrated that he could locate waterpipes at the farm where he worked with no previous knowledge of where they were. Every time he came over a pipe the crotch bent downward. He really was able to tell just where the pipes were in spite of their crooked curves. He was a simple, mild old laborer, and was not to be suspected of sleight of hand. He said he couldn’t prevent the downward inclination of the crotch if he tried to, but had no explanation to offer of the queer performance of the twig in his hand.
