210 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



I heard the same or similar statements in New En- 

 gland when I was a boy. Not many years ago I was 

 visiting an uncle in Massachusetts, and while there I 

 saw three or four men slowly pacing a piece of ground 

 on a side hill a short distance away. I asked what 

 the solemn appearing individuals were about. After 

 being told that the elder of the group, who held a 

 crooked stick in his two hands and watched the Avand 

 very closely, was a " locator of wells " and " finder of 

 hidden treasure," I hastened to the scene with a view 

 of learning the secret, or what I could in regard to it. 

 I had heard of the mystery before, but had never seen 

 the practical working of it. The wand was forked 

 and of green hazel ; the diviner's hands grasped the 

 two branches of the stick, and the body of the little 

 tree the thickness of the thumb stood upward, when 

 the implement had been properly manipulated and was 

 in condition for the subtle action. The forked hazel 

 stick was called a " divining rod " or the " witch's 

 puzzle." When the bifurcate hazel stick had been 

 grasped and held for manifestations and demonstra- 

 tions, the front aspect of the hands did not face each 

 other, but the backs were turned to one another, the 

 little fingers being uppermost, Now, if anybody will 

 thus grasp the forks of a "divining rod" made of 

 apple tree, elder, or birch, and have the central stub 

 or stump a foot long, the weight of it will incline the 

 stalk to tip one way or the other; and if the wood be 

 freshly cut, and the hands clutch the forks with firm- 

 ness, the twisting force will wrench the green bark 

 from its foundations. This part of the trick ends the 

 experiment, and demonstrates the fact that a good 

 spring of water is not far under ground. And what 

 is a clincher of the feat, the sinkers of a well are 



