"Snow-Shoe Thompson" [pp. 419-435]

430 " Snow-Shoe Thoiompson." [O
son, I wish you'd see if you can't get me a liever in the virtues of the peep-stone. S
peep-stone the next time you go down to perstitions of many kinds prevail in the la
Sacramento." of his birth. In the " ster," or huts of t
"What is a peep-stone?" asked Thomp- nmountaineers, wild legends of witches a
son. enchanters, and their doings in the das
"It is a ball of glass shaped like an egg,,' before the reign of Olaf I., are still relate
said Mrs. Bowers, "and to be a good one, it Even to this day some of the peasantry b
should be perfectly transparent. I have one, lieve, with the Laplanders, that certain witc
but it is old and has become cloudy. I want es keep the wind tied up in leathern bag
you to find me one that is perfectly clear." letting it out for good or evil, as may su
"What use do you make of it? What is their purposes.
it good for?" asked Thompson. Thompson said Mrs. Bowers was grea
"I can find out all manner of things with disappointed when he returned to Johntow
it," said the seeress. "If anything is stolen and told her that in all the great cityof Sa
I can find the thief, and the article stolen. ramento no such thing as a peep-sto
By looking into the peep-stone I can see the was to be found. No doubt that city f
faces of the dead; can trace persons that many degrees in her good opinion, when s
are missing; can see hidden treasure, and found that one could not go there and
can see rich ore lying deep in the ground. once get such an ordinary and necessary li
What I now want a good peep-stone for is to tle article as a peep-stone.
find a mine that I have seen through my Not being able to procure a bright, ne
old one. It is the richest mine in the peep-stone, Mrs. Bowers fell back up
world. It is at no great distance from here, her old one. In using it, Thompson said s
but I can't exactly make out its surround- looked through it endwise. In this way s
ings." asserted that she could see at a certain poi
Speaking of this, Thompson said: "I an immense deposit of ore. Tracing theor
promised to try to find what Mrs. Bowers upward she could see the surface groun
wanted. Wvhen I next went down to Sacra- but was not sure that she saw the rocks, s
mento, I visited all the stores in the city in and surrounding hills distinctly. Some oft
search of a peep-stone. They laughed at cloudy spots in the peep-stone appear
me in a good many places. When I told to fall in the way, and mingle with the vario
them what a peep-stone was like, and how features of the landscape.
it was used, some laughed until tears ran In the spring of I859, Thompson went u
down their cheeks. I had to laugh myself, to Six-mile Canon, to deliver letters an
yet I was determined to find a peep-stone, papers to the miners at work in the placers
if there was such a thing in the place. I that point. While he was in the canon, o