46 Charms
After he made this statement, he was employed one dry season to locate a spring on a hillside in a village several miles from his home.
The crotch he used was long and limber; and he wound the ends about his palms, and grasped them very tight. His palms were turned upward, and the stick stood up vertically in the air above them. When he came over water the top tipped outward and downward. The spot where it went down farthest was the place where the best spring was. Where there was water the crotch would go down, even if he tried to prevent it. Sometimes the downward pull was so forcible that when he held the twigs tight the bark would be twisted off in his hands. He said that water in a brook or in a pail did not affect the mystic crotch ; the water must have dirt over it to make the stick turn.
In the case I speak of the water-finder went over the premises, and the crotch indicated a spot in the corner of a cornfield as the best one for a spring. The man said there was a spring there and a good one, only they would have to dig twelve feet to strike it.
The corn was cut, and three men
