Divining the Waters

Ask your friends if they’ve ever heard of rhabdomancy and chances are they will give you a blank stare. But if you mention water witching or divining, you’ll find a lot of folks know what you are talking about. The art of divining for water and other materials goes back to ancient times and no one knows just where it originated.

I have personally seen divining in action, and the best dowser (what we called them in Okla.), was my Grandpa Young on my mother’s side of the family. Most of the water wells in Maude, were located by him.

Grandpa was really good and he always said that a hazel stick was the only rod he used, but in a pinch a willow or peach rod would work. I’ve heard of dowsers who used welding rods, coat hangers or even buggy whips. However, Grandpa always said that natural material were best.

Before he started he would dip the end of the stick in water and grasp the two ends in his hands and start roaming over a likely area. After a while, if he was lucky, the butt-end of the stick would start bobbing up and down when he was over water. He claimed that he could always tell how far down the water was located by the shaking of the stick.

This ability to find water by means of a divining rod is a gift that only a few posses. It can’t be taught or acquired, but it sometimes runs in families. I’ve tried it several times , but I just don’t seem to have the talent.

No only water, but other things can be found by witching. Family legend (not verified, but a good story) has it that one time old Mr. Burton who made the best corn whiskey in Pottowatamine County and originally farmed the section next to our place in Maude, got sick and thought he was going to die. It seems that Mr. Burton wanted to ‘take it with him’, so before he went to the hospital he buried 50 gallons of his best vintage somewhere on his property for safe keeping. Well, lo and behold, he did up and die without telling anyone where he’d buried all that good stuff.

His son, Sid Burton, according to legend, offered Grandpa $5 to locate the whiskey. Grandpa said that he figured Mr. Burton was drunk when he buried his stash, so when he started witching, he concentrated on a 100-yard radius around Mr. Burton’s still.

Grandpa Young claimed that he located the whiskey in less that 30 minutes. He said what really helped him, was that he repeatedly dipped his stick in whiskey so he wouldn’t be bothered with water reading. Grandpa said he really hated to take Sid’s money, beings he was now an orphan, so he just settled for a gallon of whiskey. Grandpa was a teetotaler, so he gave the booze to Grandmother Young to use in her cold and rheumatism medicine.