COUNTRY LIFE
Dowsers and Drought It goes without saying that in the long dry spells of this year and last the art (it is certainly not a science) of the diviner or dowser has been many times invoked. One of them asked me to try my 'prentice hand, and the hazel fork twisted so violently that it wrenched the skin of my thumb and finger. Nevertheless, it was not wholly persuasive. Now the latest view among those who preach the philosophy of dowsing is (so I am told) that the water or metal or indeed the hidden human being affects the person, not directly the forked stick. The strained grip, which is essential, is at once made active by nervous influences affecting the person ; and this view, held at any rate by some dowsers, cuts away the ground from one class of scientific objectors. Personally, I was conscious that the hazel was responding to involuntary direction from me, not from other external influences.
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