Even though Switzerland is one of the most water rich and peaceful countries in the world, we have a long history of conflict and cooperation about water. In particular in the dry parts of Switzerland, where farmers rely on irrigation such as in the Canton of Wallis, there are numerous examples of water allocation schemes with a long, tumultuous, and sometimes violent history. Very well known are the “Bisses” and “Suonen” which are spectacular water collection, allocation, and irrigation channels.
At the beginning of these water channels, there are water sources, which are often very difficult to access and in the middle of rocks. Here legends about water flourish. I visited such a source in the beautiful Bietsch valley one week ago.
The legend is about the “Nasulecher”, or “Nostrils”. It shows how water is both a source of myth and a daily necessity. Half way up the steep rock face on the left side of the valley, water shoots out of the mountain from two large clefts of equal size. This gave rise to the legend of two brothers who are said to have killed each other in a fight over water in the Wiwanni area above Ausserberg.
God then settled the quarrel in his own way, the story says: He divided the water neatly into two, and had it emerge from the mountain at an inaccessible spot where the quarrelsome brothers couldn’t get at it. At the beginning of the 20th century, the poacher Theodor Theler discovered during one of his forays that it was possible to crawl several dozen metres through the “Nostrils” to reach a small underground lake. Legend and reality meet at this enchanted spot: many centuries ago, the people of Ausserberg or possibly of the Raaft and Leiggern alpine pastures, tried to dam the water of the «Nasulecher», using a larch beam and a groove cut into the rock, probably in the hope that it would emerge further up at the “Horu” and thus could be used for drinking and watering. Even today there is a water channel below the Wiwanni hut, but it is useless since there has not been a glacier for a long time.
source: https://www.myswissalps.ch/story/690
Read more: https://www.hikr.org/tour/post7048.html
https://www.sac-cas.ch/en/huts-and-tours/sac-route-portal/nasulecher-9469/
