'Well done, Titty,' John said. 'Well done. Jolly well done.' -- from Pigeon Post
'Roger' of the 1998 expedition tried a genuine divining rod made of forked twig, though none of the members was Dick enough to know if the twig was hazel or not.
The World of Arthur Ransome by COOT
Since : 1998/02/13
Last update : 2002/01/12
Japanese page
Three ARC members, Pockut, Titmouse, and COOT, and their children got together at Tyson's Farm (COOT's home) on February 11, 1998. They made divining rods of L-shape wires instead of forked hazel twigs. Then, the 1998 SADMC expedition set off to High Topps (Yakushi-ike park in Machida, Tokyo) to find a well to turn the camp 'Might Have Been' to 'Can Be'.
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'Titty' of the 1998 SADMC expedition is holding a divining rod in front of her. The rod is pointing straight forward now. When she comes to a place with hidden underground water, the rod is supposed to turn either inward or outward. |
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The expedition members began dowsing earnestly. Natives around were very curious and wondering if they were witnessing a strange ceremony of religious cult. Look at the head of the man at right-hand side! He looks like Captain Flint, but he is just a native passing by. |
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Where is water? |
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Oh, it must be close. Titty's divining rod began to turn. |
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Her rod completely turned inward. There must be a hidden water stream
under the paved path. In fact, there was a water outlet into a large pond
close to this place. 'Well done, Titty,' John said. 'Well done. Jolly well done.' -- from Pigeon Post 'Roger' of the 1998 expedition tried a genuine divining rod made of forked twig, though none of the members was Dick enough to know if the twig was hazel or not. |
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All the expedition members succeeded to dowse. It was so astonishingly easy that there no longer was the sense of miracle or mystery. Roger's genuine divining rod stubbornly refused to work, though. |
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Then the expedition members played Roger's game. One of them hid a bottle which is full of water in a bush. While he/she is hiding it, all the others were looking the other way just like Squashy Hat. Then they tried to find it using their rods. One of the junior members of SADMC, Tsubame-gaeshi, used his rod in a wrong way! He poked in and about bushes by his rod. |
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One of the member's rod gave a signal by this bush, so junior members were searching the hidden water bottle. |
Because nine out of nine succeeded, it looks as if everyone can dowse. If you still don't believe it, there is a good chance that you can do it, too. In fact, none of us really believed that we would be able to do it until we tried.
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