THE DIVINING-ROD 387 



nor control. Such persons are the honest, self-deceived 

 " dousers," who are, and have been, sufficiently numerous 

 to establish a belief in the existence of a mysterious 

 agency causing the twig to " duck." No doubt originally, 

 with complete innocence and honesty, this mysterious 

 agency was believed to be a sort of magnetic attraction 

 due to a sympathy between the twig and subterranean 

 metal. In later days, without any attempt to give a 

 reason for the change, the same class of people have 

 believed that it was water far below the surface of the 

 earth which was the cause of the attraction, and conse- 

 quent ducking or dousing of the twig. 



Let us assume for a moment that the facts are as I 

 have stated, and that the honest " douser " merely finds 

 his forked twig dousing or ducking because his hands are 

 tired by keeping in one position. Then it is evident that 

 no harm would be done, but rather a useful decision 

 leading to action would be determined, by the belief that 

 concealed metal was the cause of the " ducking." Digging 

 must be commenced somewhere, and the dousing-rod 

 would only be tried on likely ground, so that, often, the 

 thing sought for (whether metal or water) would be found 

 after prolonged excavation at the spot indicated by the 

 douser, or near it. If the digging were a failure, the 

 believers in the dousing-rod would say that they had not 

 been able to dig deep enough, or that some hostile 

 agency had intervened and misled the " douser," or that 

 he was in poor health, and so " worked " badly. The 

 successes are remembered and the failures forgotten. So 

 the belief in the dousing-twig as a real guide to subter- 

 ranean metal and water has been maintained, and all the 

 more securely because there have been, and doubtless are 

 still, many honest, innocent country people who truly 

 believe that they possess an exceptional and mysterious 



