The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-02-20
ABOUT WATER WITCHES.
SMALL PEACH TREE BRANCHES USED
AS OWNING RODS.

independently atch,
The articles in The Times in relation
10 the extraordinary results obtained by
the use OF the divining rod in finding
water and mineral deposits have had no
more interested or appeciative readers
than the people in the mountain ranges
of the Blue Ridge and Cumberland.
The doings of the water witches have
been part of thc life of these people fur
Their back than any one can remember
1t is not every community that can boast
the possession of one Of these gifted per-
sons, The respect in which they are
held is in inverse ratio to their numbers
Families willingly deprive themselves of
comforts in order to provide them for
the water witches In return they ex-
pect services in locating wells. If it may
not be quite true that every well in the
mountains was located through this kind
of agency, there is no doubt that the
majority were SO located, and that the
faith of the people in the mystic power
of the witches is boundless.
A SIMPLE COMMUNITY.
So far as the natives are concerned
this is country of poverty. They do
not call themselves poor, for all are
nearly on an equality in the bare furnishs
ings of their houses, and the shotes that
they raise on the free forage of the woods
in summer and fall, with the corn, hon.
my, tobacco and moonshine they can
lay up by small trading with the valley
farmers, supply their modest winter
needs. Money is a thing that enters very
little into their calculations. A mountain
community enjoys more than average
prosperity, in which the cash earnings of
the heads of the families reach as much
as 500 per year apiece. But all being on
about the same basis there is no compare
tive poverty. They get along from year
to year, and never having known any
other condition they are content
As "a matter of course, they cannot re-
pay the services of the water witches
with cash. The most they can do is to
make them comfortable. This is salts
factory all around. In some way the
impression has become general that a
WdtcI WllIH 10 al SOib Vi
creature, not made for common toll, and
whose magic will be impaired by the
kind of labor that ordinary mortals en-
dure. AS witches are too scarce to be
spared, they receive very good care, and
as they are endowed along with their
mystical gifts with the natural Incidence
of the mountaineer nature, they are ex-
pected and are entirely willing to save
themselves always for the small service
required of them by those who bring
them yearly tributes of stores. The
witches thus get no richer than their
neighbors, but they have an easier time
of it. Sometimes, months will pass in
which one will not be called upon.
Whenever call is made, however, he
must be ready to respond to it.
A forked branch of peach tree is the
only divining rod known in the noun.
tains. Every witch is as careful of his
branch as if it were genuine treasure.
He selects it when he begins to practice
his magic, and never changes it willingly
When not in use it is carefully hung or
the walls of the best room in his cabin
Whatever else may happen. that must
not be disturbed. 1t would be the first
thing to be saved if his cabin caught fire
| Afterward he might go back for the wife
and babies. On every trip he carries il
out of reach of the brush and rock thai
may line his pathway, and his mission
ended he returns it as carefully to its
hanging place in the cabins best room.
Whether from his own belief that he is
gifted beyond men, or because of the
awe in which he is held by his fellows
the water witch always means that hi.
work shall be impressive. When armed
with his twig and in search of water h(
seems to lose himself, as if he were lifteC
out of the common sphere into a relation
with something more than human
| There are no incantationS such as negro
voodooism employs, but the scene be
comes suggestive of that class of super
stition. With his face set and apparent
" with no thought of his surrounding
beyond the intensity with which he fol
lows and watches his twig, he walks
solemnly up and down, holding the
twig by its forks in front of him, anc
seeming to let it lead him instead Of
being propelled by him. When the free
end of the twig drops from the horizon
tai at which it has been carried to the
perpendicular he stops suddenly. His
mission is over. The twig points t.
water. Men mark the spot, and the
water witch goes away. The well is due
through the markings. The mountain
GERS say that water never fails wher
found this way.
OLD DOC WISE.
The water witch best known in thi
part of the country is old Doc Wise. d.
lives in the mountains over beyonc
Christiansburg, and rarely leaves home
Indeed, it is only with the greatest diff
Guilty that the mountaineers can get hin
to point well for them. He is abov'
the need of help from their stores, ant
of late years when he has gone out will
his rod it was to oblige his friends rathe
than for prestige or pay in any form
The mountaineers understand that he i
in some way related to the old family o
Governor Wise and that he was chris
tened Decatur. At any rate, the abbre
waited twist of the name by which he i
known did not result from any financia
doctoring of the gentlemen from whom
he got his money, although such deri
walton might be suspected by those VIII
date his record with his fortune. He wa
always Doc Wise, and whether the bloc,
of proud aristocracy was in his veins o
not, he came into the mountains afte
the war with as little of earthly substanc
as the most scanty native, and for sew
eral years picked up a slender living as
water witch.
About ten years ago party OF pros
pectors stopped at Christiansburg for tn
winter. They were looking for coal an
iron deposits, in which the mountain 70
, gions abound.
When they were very nearly ready +
give up the search as failure they me
Doc Wise. Like other water witches, h
could find minerals with his peach twi
J as readily as he could find water. Hi
| talents in that direction had never bppl