[Illustration: SAINT SENAN’S WELL, COUNTY OF CLARE.]
There are perhaps no objects in our own dear Ogygia, or Sacred Island,
as it was also anciently called, which strike the minds of strangers
with greater surprise, and excite them to more meditative reflection,
than the holy wells which are so numerous in it, and the religious
observances--to them so strange--which they see practised at them. By
the devout of the reformed creeds, among such observers, these sacred
fountains, with their adjacent and almost equally sacred trees, covered
with bits of rag and other votive offerings of propitiation or gratitude
to the presiding spirit of the spot, who is generally the patron saint of
the district, are usually regarded with horror, as objects closely allied
to pagan idolatry; and the religious devotions which they see practised
at them excite only feelings of pity or contempt for what they consider
the debased intellect of the votaries who frequent them. By the painter,
poet, and the mere man of taste, however, they are viewed in a spirit of
greater toleration, and with a more pleasing interest, particularly in
the western portions of our island, where the wild scenery amid which
they are generally to be met with, the symmetrical forms and often
beautiful faces of the devotees, and the brilliant colours of their
ancient national costumes, impart that interest and picturesqueness to
the spectacle of which our own great national painter Burton has so
admirably availed himself, and made familiar to the world, in his picture
of the Blind Girl at the Holy Well. It is, however, by the antiquary
and the philosopher that they are viewed with the deepest interest, for
to the one they present in all their vividness the still existing images
of customs which originated in the earliest period of the history of our
race, while to the other they supply the most touching evidences of the
strength of that devotional instinct, however blind and misapplied, that
humble faith in the existence and omnipotence of a Divine Intelligence,
which are among the loftiest feelings of our nature, and which, when
properly directed, must lead to the noblest results. In the minds of such
philosophers, a contemplation of the usages to which we have referred
will be apt to excite, not feelings of depression and despondency, but
rather cheering anticipations of hope for the future prospects and
ultimate happiness of the human race; and they who practise those usages
will be regarded, even in their present meanness of garb, and concomitant
vulgarity of habits, not as degraded outcasts from society, grovelling in
the mire of ignorance and superstition, but as members of the universal
human family, to be tolerated and cherished in all kindliness; while,
with respect to their peculiar devotion, for which so many censure them,
it can still be said,
----“This may be superstition, weak or wild,
But even the faintest relicts of a shrine
Of any worship, wake some thoughts divine.”
The Pagan origin of well-worship is now established beyond the
possibility of contradiction, and its extreme antiquity is lost in the
night of time. This has been satisfactorily shown in a very interesting
essay, written with a view to the annihilation of its remains in
Ireland, by a Roman Catholic clergyman of distinguished abilities and
learning, the late Dr Charles O’Conor. This learned writer attributes
its introduction into the British islands, and Ireland in particular,
to the Phœnicians, and quotes several authorities to show that if it
had not its origin with the Chaldeans, it can at least be traced as
far back as to them, and that from Chaldea and Persia it passed into
Arabia, thence into Egypt and Lybia, and lastly into Greece, Italy,
Spain, and Ireland. In all these countries its vestiges are still to
be found, but in none of them at this day so numerous as in Ireland;
and it is remarkable that its usages are still identical in the far
distant regions of the east with those in our own _Ultima Thule_ of the
west. This identity is clearly evidenced by Hanway, in his “Travels
in Persia,” in which he says, “We arrived at a desolate caravanserai,
where we found nothing but water. I observed a tree _with a number of
rags to the branches_. These were so many charms which passengers coming
from Ghilan, a province remarkable for agues, had left there in a fond
expectation of leaving their disease also in the same spot.” Similar
instances have been adduced by later travellers in the east, in reading
whose descriptions we might almost suppose that they were depicting
scenes in Ireland; and if all other evidences were wanting, these facts
alone would be sufficient to establish the conclusion that the worship
of fountains in Ireland was of Pagan origin. But we have in our ancient
manuscripts the most satisfactory historical evidences to establish the
fact. Thus, in Tirechan’s Life of St Patrick, preserved in the Book of
Armagh, and St Evin’s Life as published by Colgan, it is stated, in
detailing the progress of the Irish Apostle through Ireland, that he came
to the fountain called Slan [that is, health], “because it was indicated
to him that the Magi honoured this fountain, and made donations to it as
gifts to God.” This fountain was square, and there was a square stone in
the mouth of it, and the water came over the stone, that is, through the
interstices; and the Pagans told him that a certain Magus, who worshipped
water as a divinity, and considered fire as a destroyer, when dying, made
a shrine for his bones in the water beneath the stone, in order that they
might be preserved. Patrick told the assembled congregation that it was
not true that the king of the waters was in the fountain, and bade them
raise up the stone, remarking that the bones of a man were not beneath
it, but that he thought there was some gold and silver appearing through
the joinings from their impious offerings; no such valuable offerings
were, however, found; and Patrick consecrated the stone so raised to
the true Divinity. It may not be unworthy of remark, that the well of
Finnmagh is still, as in the time of St Patrick, equally reverenced,
though under a different name and with a different faith. It is now
called Tober Brighde, or Bride’s Well, having been subsequently dedicated
to that saint as well as all the churches in the plain of Finnmagh,
and under this name the Druidical well of _Slan_ is one of the most
frequented and honoured in the whole of the county of Roscommon.
Several authorities of the same character as that now adduced may be
found in the lives of other early Irish saints, but it is not necessary
to our purpose to quote them.
Dr O’Conor shows from various evidences that on the firm establishment
of Christianity in various parts of Europe the most severe ordinances of
the church were promulgated against the continuance of well-worship in
any form. “I have already stated,” he observes, “that well-worshipping
has been utterly abolished by the Catholic religion in Italy. The
_Fontinalia_ exist no longer; the fountain of Egeria, which I have seen
near Rome, is known only to the learned; and I have seen the common
peasantry of Castel Gandolfo and Marino washing their linen in the sacred
waters of the _Ferentine_ Assemblies of Latium and of Rome!”
In reference to its abolition in England, he adduces a canon made in the
reign of Edgar, A.D. 960, by which it was ordained “that every priest
_do forbid the worship of fountains_, and necromancy, and auguries, and
enchantments, and soothsayings, and false worship, and legerdemain, which
carry men into various impostures, and to groves and Ellens, and also
many _trees_ of divers sorts, and _stones_.”
He also shows that similar ordinances appear in the Capitularies of
Charlemagne, and that amongst the laws of the reign of Ecgbright, A.D.
740, the 148th canon is:--“If any man, following the custom of the
Pagans, introduce diviners or sorcerers into his house, or attend the
_lustrations_ of Pagans, let him do penance for five years.”
It may be asked, then, how has it happened that the veneration paid to
wells has continued in Ireland even to the present day, and to this
question it is not very easy to give a satisfactory answer. It may be
remarked, however, that no evidences have yet been discovered to show
that similar local ordinances were made to destroy their continuance in
Ireland, and that it may hence be inferred that the attachment of the
Irish People generally to their ancient usages in this instance, as well
as in their funeral lamentations, May-fires, and many other ceremonies
of a religious character derived from the same eastern and Pagan origin,
was too strong even for the power of the clergy to eradicate or greatly
diminish. Certain it is, that the pilgrimages to Lough Derg, which, there
is every reason to believe, derive their origin from the same source,
were abolished by an order of Pope Alexander VI, in 1497, and yet the
people returned to them again, and they are at the present moment as
numerously made, if not more so than ever. And, in like manner, the
pilgrimages to wells, even where discountenanced and punished by the
Roman Catholic clergy, as they are now in almost every part of Ireland,
are still continued in secrecy, with a tenacity to ancient usages
singularly characteristic of the Irish race, and which will ensure their
existence for a considerable time longer.
St Senan’s Well, which we have selected as a characteristic example of
the holy wells of Ireland, is situated near the west bank of the Shannon,
near Dunass, in the county of Clare. There is nothing very peculiar to
distinguish this well from a thousand other fountains of the same kind,
but the unusual character of the votive offerings made at it, which, as
our engraving exhibits, consist chiefly of wooden bowls, tea-cups whole
and broken, blacking-pots, and similar odd offerings of gratitude to St
Seanan Liath, or Seanan the Hoary, the patron saint of the parish.