le times for obtaining these treasures. These tales, of course,
I regarded as visionary. However, being prompted by curiosity, I at
length accepted their invitation to join them in their nocturnal
excursions. I will now relate a few incidents attending these nocturnal
excursions.

"Joseph Smith, sen., came to me one night, and told me that Joseph,
jun., had been looking in his stone, and had seen, not many rods from
his house, two or three kegs of gold and silver, some feet under the
surface of the earth, and that none others but the elder Joseph and
myself could get them. I accordingly consented to go, and early in the
evening repaired to the place of deposit. Joseph, sen., first made a
circle, twelve or fourteen feet in diameter: 'This circle,' said he,
'contains the treasure.' He then stuck in the ground a row of
witch-hazel sticks around the said circle, for the purpose of keeping
off the evil spirits. Within this circle he made another, of about eight
or ten feet in diameter. He walked around three times on the periphery
of this last circle, muttering to himself something I could not
understand. He next stuck a steel rod in the centre of the circles, and
then enjoined profound silence, lest we should arouse the evil spirit
who had the charge of these treasures. After we had dug a trench of
about five feet in depth around the rod, the old man, by signs and
motions, asked leave of absence, and went to the house to inquire of the
son the cause of our disappointment. He soon returned, and said, that
Joe had remained all the time in the house, looking in his stone and
watching the motions of the evil spirit; that he saw the spirit come up
to the ring, and as soon as it beheld the cone which we had formed
around the rod, it caused the money to sink. We then went into the
house, and the old man observed that we had made a mistake in the
commencement of the operation; 'If it had not been for that,' said he,
'we should have got the money.'

"At another time, they devised a scheme by which they might satiate
their hunger with the flesh of one of my sheep. They had seen in my
flock of sheep a large, fat, black wether. Old Joseph and one of the
boys came to me one day, and said, that Joseph, jun., had discovered
some very remarkable and valuable treasures, which could be procured
only in one way. That way was as follows:--that a black sheep should be
taken on the ground where the treasures were concealed; that, after
cutting