Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 8 · column 4 of 9 · from the scan, no model involved
By THERESA REYNOLDS
Rappahannock Ncwa Staff Writer
Although dowsing is most familiar to us as a search for water, the practice can mean a search for any liquid, mineral, or metal using a “divining rod.” Dowsers and their followers through the ages have pointed to Moses as the first dowser when he brought forth water from a rock by striking it with a rod (Numbers 20: 9-11).
The Romans used a “virgula divina" (divining rod) very similar to the dowser’s stick, but it was an instrument for magic. The first seriously documented case of successful dowsing was reported by Georgius Agricola in his De Re Metallic*. In 1556 he gave a description of the Teutonic miners using a forked stick to locate minerals in the ground.
Moses notwithstanding. Martin Luther and other churchmen of later centuries spoke out against dowsing as an alliance with the devil. Despite their efforts, the practice continued and spread to England during the reign of Elizabeth I. when German miners used forked sticks to help them in their work at Cornwall. It was from England that the practice spread as the British empire reached the far
88.7%