CHAPTER X.

WISHING AND CURSING WELLS.

In East and West alike there are oracular wells inhabited by spirits gifted with powers of divination. The instance of the well in Ghoga Street in Bombay has already been noted. There is a _kund_ in Baladana near Wadhawan, dedicated to Hol, the favourite _mata_ of the Charans. In this _kund_, black or red _gagar bedinus_ pieces of cotton thread are sometimes seen floating on the water. They appear only for a moment, and sink if any one endeavours to seize them. The appearance of black pieces forbodes famine; but the red ones foretell prosperity. At Askot, in the Himalayas, there is a holy well which is used for divining the prospects of the harvest. If the spring in a given time fills the brass vessel to the brim into which the water falls, there will be a good season; if only a little water comes, drought may be expected. In a well in Kashmir those who have any special desires throw a nut. If it floats, it is considered an omen of success. If it sinks, it is a sign of misfortune.

With this may be compared the divinations performed by sailors at the fountain of Recoverance or St. Laurent. To know the future state of the weather they cast on the waters of the fountain a morsel of bread. If the bread floats, says Evans Wentz in _Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries_, it is a sure sign of fair weather, but if it sinks, of weather so bad that no one should venture to go out in the fishing boats. Similarly, in some wells, pins are dropped by lovers. If the pins float, the water-spirits give a promise of favourable auspices, but if the pins sink, the maiden is unhappy, and will hesitate in accepting the proposal of marriage.

The most famous modern oracle in Greece is the well at Amorgos. It stands in a little side shrine, where the priest offers a prayer to St. George. Then he draws some water from the well in a small vessel and diagnoses the contents. The rules for the interpretation are quite lengthy, but the answers are usually ambiguous. These answers are given according to the foreign matter in the water. For example, hair denotes trouble and sickness.

Near Kirkmichael in Banff there is a fountain, once highly celebrated and anciently dedicated to St. Michael. Many a patient has by its waters been restored to health, and many more have attested the efficacy of their virtues. But, as the presiding power is sometimes capricious, and apt to desert his charge, the fountain now lies neglected, choked with weeds, unhonoured and unfrequented. In better days, it was not so; for the winged guardian, under the semblance of a fly, was never absent from his duty. If the sober matron wished to know the issue of her husband’s ailment, and the love-sick nymph that of her languishing swain, they visited the well of St. Michael. Every movement of the sympathetic fly was regarded in silent awe; and as he appeared cheerful or dejected, the anxious votaries drew their presages; and their breasts vibrated with corresponding emotions.[34]

Similarly, at a Cornish well, people used to go and inquire about absent friends. If the person “be living and in health, the still, quiet waters of the well-pit will instantly bubble or boil up as a pot of clear, crystal-like water; if sick, foul and puddled water; if dead, it will neither boil nor bubble up, nor alter its colour or stillness.”

In his Monastic Remains, More refers to the existence of two wishing wells in Walsingham Chapel. “The wishing wells,” he observes, “still remain, two circular stone pits filled with water, enclosed with a square wall, where the pilgrims used to kneel and throw in a piece of gold whilst they prayed for the accomplishment of their wishes.”

Pennant in his account of St. Winefride’s well says: “Near the steps, two feet beneath the water is a large stone, called the wishing stone. It receives many a kiss from the faithful who are supposed never to fail in experiencing the completion of their desires, provided the wish is delivered with full devotion and confidence.”

Another famous wishing well is in Cornwall, named the Fairy Well, Carbis Bay. After the enquirer has formed his wish with his back to the well, he throws a pin over his left shoulder. If it strikes the water he obtains his wish, if it falls on the bank, he is disappointed. “The little well,” says Mr. Colin Bennett in the _Good Words Magazine_, “is much resorted to at the present day by tourists and all those who have a sense of the quaintness or romance of such ancient observances.”

The priestess of Gulval Well in Fosses Moor was an old woman who instructed the devotees in their ceremonial observances. They had to kneel down and lean over the well so as to see their faces in the water and repeat after their instructor a rhyming incantation, after which, the reply of the spirit of the well was interpreted by the bubbling of the water or its quiescence.

Just as there are wishing wells, there are cursing wells also, scattered through Europe, particularly in Celtic countries. The Kelts of Bretagne, says Major-General Forlong,[35] still fear not only “our Lady of Hate,” but also the “Well of Cursing.” The belief was, and perhaps still is, that if certain evil rites are performed, and a stone inscribed with the enemy’s name is thrown into such a well, the victim will pine away and die, unless he who has inflicted the curse relents, and removes the baneful charm ere it be too late.[36]

Near the well of St. Aelian, not far from Betteas Abergeley in Denbighshire, resided a woman who officiated as a kind of priestess. Any one who wished to inflict a curse upon an enemy resorted to this priestess, and for a trifling sum she registered in a book kept for the purpose the name of the person on whom the curse was intended to fall. A pin was then dropped into the well in the name of the victim and the curse was complete.[37]

Varied indeed are the virtues of Holy Wells and the wonders connected with them. A peculiar property of the water of St. Keyne is that whoever first drinks of it after marriage becomes the ruler in the household. “I know not,” says Fuller, “whether it be worth the reporting, that there is in Cornwall, near the parish of St. Neots, a well, arched over with the robes of four kinds of trees, withy, oak, elm, and ash, dedicated to St. Keyne. The reported virtue of the water is this, that whether husband or wife come first to drink thereof, they get the mastery thereby.” After his visit to Cornwall Southey celebrated this well in the famous poem, “The Well of St. Keyne.”

“St. Keyne,” quoth the Cornish-man, “many a time Drank of this crystal Well, And before the Angel summon’d her, She laid on the water a spell.

“If the Husband of this gifted Well Shall drink before his Wife, A happy man thenceforth is he, For he shall be Master for life.

“But if the Wife should drink of it first, God help the husband then!” The Stranger stoopt to the Well of St. Keyne, And drank of the water again. “You drank of the Well I warrant betimes?” He to the Cornish-man said: But the Cornish-man smiled as the Stranger spake, And sheepishly shook his head.

“I hasten’d as soon as the wedding was done, And left my Wife in the porch; But i’ faith she had been wiser than me, For she took a bottle to Church.”

At the foot of Carn Brea Hill is a little well dedicated to St. Eunius. To be baptised in the water drawn from this is a sure safeguard against death by hanging.

Of the Rin Mochan pool the Brahmins say that any one who bathes there becomes free from debt.

Strange traditions are not wanting, says Mr. Colin Bennett,[38] to account for the wonderful state in which these wells are preserved. It is impossible to remove the stones of the well of St. Cleer, which is situated near Liskeard. True, they may be carted away at daytime, but they all return at night and deposit themselves in heaps on the site from which they were taken. Similar stories are related of the marvellous powers of the basin which catches the water as it issues from the spring at St. Nun’e Well, Pelynt, near Looe and of the Bisland Holy Well the ground surrounding which can never be broken for tillage on penalty of disaster to the family of the person attempting to do so.