Man or Stick ?
So it conies down to the question—can the nerves or senses of a man feel the presence of water or metal or another man ? Native West Australians are said to be able to smell water two miles away ; and certainly they seem to have some curious power of locating that rare fluid. The least credulous of us may agree that some people on some occasions may be endowed for moments with some supersensitiveness that is affected by the neighbourhood of water ; but recent researches and last week's trials would indicate that there is little justifi- cation for the attempt to convert the occasional inspiration of an art into a business-like science. One of the firmest believers that I know—he is an architect and employs dowgers pro- fessionally—says that they do not know at all how deep the water is. It is perhaps a mistake to ask precise and regular results of such a mystic art. The history of it in England begins with highly dramatic accounts of a dowser racing along the track of a criminal a day or so after the crime had been committed. The detective use of the fork for this purpose and for locating precious metals preceded its use for finding water.
*
Previous page
