Many people believe that a fork-shaped twig can locate water if that twig is placed in the hands of the right person. That person is called a dowser.
If, for example, a farmer wants to dig a well on his property, it would be very costly to dig just anywhere and come up with nothing. So the farmer would hire a dowser.
The dowser comes to the farm and makes a divining rod out of a V-shaped twig of hazel wood. Some dowsers prefer using wire or whale bone for their divining rods. These rods measure anywhere from 6″ to 18″ long.
The dowser then grips the rod by its forked end with the long stem part extending upward. He walks about until the rod dips downward. Dowsers claim that the rod dips suddenly and without their knowledge at the exact spot where the water will be found. But no one has ever been able to explain why!
During the war in Viet Nam, American soldiers used L-shaped coat hangers as divining rods to locate buried land mines and booby traps, and thus save their lives!
