HEALING WATERS.
Many of these wells are renowned no less for their medicinal properties
than for their sanctity. Their waters are believed to be under the care
of sanitary guardians and are held to be extremely efficacious in curing
many a distemper.
The use of water for therapeutic purposes is mentioned in the Old
Testament, where it is stated that Naaman, who suffered from skin
disease, dipped himself seven times in the Jordan and was cured. The
New Testament records a case of congenital blindness cured by washing
in the River Siloa. Balneotherapy and Hydrotherapy were not unknown in
Talmudic times. The Talmud mentions a special season between Easter and
Whitsun during which people used to go to the spas to take the waters
or mudbaths. The cure lasted twenty-one days. In the Temple a special
doctor was appointed to attend the priests for intestinal trouble caused
by their excessive eating of the flesh of sacrifices and the treatment
prescribed for them was the drinking of the water of Siloa.[23]
In Bombay the Manmala tank at Matunga, the major portion of which has
been recently filled up and on which the Sassoon Reformatory now stands,
has a reputation for curing measles. People from distant parts bring
their children to this tank and the nymphs residing in it seldom fail
to cure them of the malady. We are not aware of any other city well or
tank gifted with such healing powers, but there are several in the Bombay
Presidency. The Folklore notes of Gujarat mention a few. The water of
the Krukalas well in the island of Shankhodwar is believed to cure
fever and diseases caused by morbid heat. A draught of the water of the
Gomukhi-Ganga, near Girnar, gives one absolute immunity from an attack
of cholera. The water of a gozara well (_i.e._, a well which is polluted
owing to a person drowned in it) cures children of bronchitis and cough.
There is a well near Ramdorana, of which the water is effective against
cough, and the water of the Bahamania well near Vasawad is credited with
the same virtue. The water of the Mrigi Kund near Junagadh cures leprosy.
The Pipli well near Talawad is well-known for the stimulating effect of
its water on the digestive organs. The residents of Bombay, however, need
not go to Talawad for this boon. There are in the city the Bhikha Behram
well on Churchgate Street and the High Court well on Mayo Road renowned
for similar properties of their water. In Northern India hydrophobia is
believed to be cured if the patient looks down seven wells in succession,
while in Gujarat when a person is bitten by a rabid dog, he goes to a
well inhabited by a _Vâchharo_, the spirit who curses hydrophobia, with
two earthen cups filled with milk with a pice in each, and empties the
contents into the water. In the island of Shiel there is a _vav_ called
_Than-vav_ where mothers who cannot suckle their children for want of
milk wash their bodices which, when subsequently put on, are believed to
cause the necessary secretion of milk.
It was recently brought to my notice that the guardian spirit of a well
in Lonavla also possessed the gift of blessing mothers with milk. After
that well had been dug, a goat was offered by the owner of the well to
the spirit. This offering proved most unacceptable and the waters of the
well at once dried up. The owner implored pardon and vowed that no animal
sacrifice would ever again be offered, and that milk and ghee would be
presented instead. This had the desired effect and the guardian spirit
of the water has since been most friendly. “A few months ago,” said my
informant, “a young lady was desirous of getting milk for her new-born
babe. After fruitless attempts for a fortnight, she took an oath that
she would present to the water-saint _ghadas_ of milk and ghee and she
was forthwith blest with milk for the infant.”
In the Konkan the water of a well drawn without touching the earth or
without being placed upon the ground is given as medicine for indigestion.
There are ponds at Manora in the Goa State and Vetore in the Savantwadi
State, the water of which is used for the cure of persons suffering from
the poison of snakes, mice, spiders and scorpions.
If a person is bitten by a snake or other poisonous reptile, no medicine
is administered to him, but holy water brought from the temple of the
village goddess is given to him to drink and it is said that the patient
is cured.
At Shivam in the Ratnagiri district people use the _tirtha_ of a deity,
or the water in which its idol is washed, as medicine for diseases due to
poison. It is the sole remedy they resort to in such cases.
The water of seven tanks, or at least of one pond, in which lotuses grow,
is said to check the virulence of measles and smallpox.
A bath in a tank in the Mahim district is said to cure persons suffering
from skin diseases.
The well at Sihor in Rajputana is sacred to Gautama and is considered
efficacious in the cure of various disorders.
In Satara King Sateshwar asked the saint Sumitra for water. The sage was
wrapped in contemplation, and did not answer him. The angry monarch took
some lice from the ground and threw them at the saint, who cursed the
king with vermin all over his body. This affliction the wretched monarch
endured for twelve years, until he was cured by ablution at the sacred
fountain of Devarâshta.[24]
The birth of a child under the _mul nakshatra_ endangers the life of its
father, but the misfortune is averted if the child and its parents bathe
in the water drawn from 108 wells. A draught of such water is said to
cure _Sannipat_ or delirium.
One of the sacred tanks of India is “the Lake of Immortality” at
Amritsar. The name of the city is taken from the sacred tank in which the
Golden Temple is built. Originally, the place was only a natural pool
of water and a favourite resort of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh
religion. It was known at first as _Guru-ka-chall_, but later when the
tank was built, the name Amritsar was adopted, _amrit_ meaning water of
immortality and _sar_ meaning a tank. A holy woman once took pity on a
leper, and carried him to the banks of the tank. As he lay there, a crow
swooped into the water and came out a dove as white as snow. Seeing the
miracle, the leper was tempted to bathe in the river and was healed.
The woman could not recognize her friend, and withdrew in horror from
his embraces. But the Guru Ram Dâs came and explained matters, and “the
grateful pair assisted him in embellishing the tank, which has now become
the centre of the Sikh religion.”[25]
The tank at Lalitpur is similarly famous for the cure of leprosy. One
day, a Râjâ afflicted with the disease was passing by, and his Râni
dreamt that he should eat some of the confervæ on the surface. He ate it,
and was cured; next night the Râni dreamt that there was a vast treasure
concealed there, which when dug up was sufficient to pay the cost of
excavation. At Qasur is the tank of the saint Basant Shâh, in which
children are bathed to cure them of boils.[26]
There are several hot springs in India renowned for their curative
powers. These also are believed to be sacred to certain deities. A
typical example is that of the hot kund, called _Devki-Unai_, about
30 miles to the south of Surat. Many pilgrims visit the place on the
fifteenth day of the bright half of _Chaitra_, when the waters are
cool, to offer money, cocoanuts, and red lead to the _Unai Mata_, whose
temple stands near the kund. It is said that king Rama built this kund
while performing a sacrifice and brought water from the _pâtâl_ (nether
regions) by shooting an arrow into the earth.
Similarly, the famous hot springs forming one group in a line along
the bed of the Tansa river in the village of Vadavli are sacred to the
goddess Vajrabai or Vajreshvari, the Lady of the Thunderbolt. According
to tradition, this neighbourhood being full of demons the goddess
Vajrabai became incarnate in the locality to clear it of the wicked
spirits. She routed the whole lot of them, and the hot water of these
springs is nothing but the blood of one of the demons slain by her. Her
chronicle, or _Mahatmya_, is kept at the village of Gunj, some six miles
to the north, and her temple is placed at the top of a flight of steps
on a spur of the Sumatra range. A large fair is held here in Chaitra
(April). There are other hot springs in the neighbouring villages of
Akloli, known as the Rameshwar hot springs, whose waters are gathered
out in stone cisterns. In the eighteenth century these springs were much
used both by Indians and Europeans as a cure for fevers. In his _Oriental
Memoirs_ James Forbes describes the springs as consisting of small
cisterns of water with a temperature of 120°. “Except that it wanted a
small element of iron the water tasted like that of Bath in England.” In
the Ganeshpuri village, about three miles west of Vajrabai, are the two
hottest springs of the group. These are resorted to by people troubled
with skin diseases.
The Arabs regard the hot springs at Terka Main to be under the control
of a Vali who makes the fire and keeps it burning. Those who go there to
be healed of rheumatism invoke the saint and keep up the fire so that
the water may be hot. At the Lunatic Asylum of Hamath there is a pool
believed to be the abode of a Vali who is the patron saint of all insane
people. He appears in the night and blesses the insane by touching them.
Even troublesome children come under the spell of his influence. The
Arabs take the robes of refractory urchins to the pool and wash them in
it so as to instil wisdom and obedience in the children.
Similarly, the special function of the Altarnum well was the cure of
madness. The afflicted person was made to stand with his back to the
pool and was then tumbled headlong into the water by a sudden blow in
the breast. In the water again stood a strong fellow who took him and
tossed him up and down.[27] This ritual appears to be a survival of human
sacrifice, while the ritual followed in connection with St. Tecla’s well,
renowned for the cure of epilepsy, bears testimony to the practice of
offering animal sacrifices to the presiding spirits of water.
In his _Tour in Wales_, speaking of the village of Llandegla, where
is a church dedicated to St. Tecla, virgin and martyr, who after her
conversion by St. Paul suffered under Nero at Iconium, Pennant says:
“About two hundred yards from the church, in a quillet called Gwern
Degla, rises a small spring. The water is under the tutelage of the
saint, and to this day held to be extremely beneficial in the falling
sickness. The patient washes his limbs in the well; makes an offering
into it of four-pence; walks round it three times; and thrice repeats
the Lord’s Prayer. These ceremonies are never begun till after sunset,
in order to inspire the votaries with greater awe. If the afflicted be
of the male sex, like Socrates, he makes an offering of a cock to his
Aesculapius, or rather to Tecla, Hygeia; if of the fair sex, a hen. The
fowl is carried in a basket, first round the well, after that into the
churchyard, when the same orisons and the same circumambulations are
performed round the church. The votary then enters the church, gets under
the communion-table, lies down with the Bible under his or her head, is
covered with the carpet or cloth, and rests there till break of day,
departing after offering six pence, and leaving the fowl in the church.
If the bird dies, the cure is supposed to have been effected and the
disease transferred to the devoted victim.”
The most famous healing well in England is perhaps the Holywell, the
Lourdes of Wales. The story of this well is the story of St. Winefride,
the waters of whose fount were declared by the Protestant antiquarian,
Pennant, to be “almost as sanative as those of the Pool of Bethesda.” In
the 7th century the picturesque valley of Sychnant had as its chieftain
Thewith, whose wife was the sister of St. Beuno, and whose daughter,
Winefride, was a very beautiful girl, who had many suitors, but who
resolved to consecrate herself to God in a life of virginity. One of
the most persistent of her suitors was Prince Caradoc, who, enraged at
his rejection, made a furious onslaught on the girl, compelling her to
seek safety in flight. With drawn sword he pursued and overtook her on
the majestic hill which overlooked the town. Here he cut off her head,
which rolled to the foot of the hill. Till then, Sychnant had been
waterless—its name, indeed, signifies the dry valley, but at the spot
where the severed head rested, a copious stream burst forth, forming
a well, the sides of which were lined with fragrant moss, whilst the
stones at the bottom were tinctured with the youthful martyr’s blood.
The head itself was reunited by St. Beuno to Winefride’s body, which was
immediately restored to life by the Almighty in response to the saint’s
prayers. Winefride subsequently became a nun, dying at Gwytherin on
November 3rd, 1660.
Around the Well in Sychnant Valley grew a town which the Saxons named
Treffynion, and which became known to the Normans as Haliwell, the
hallowed or holy well, to which pilgrims fared from all parts of the
kingdom, inspired by the belief that through the intercession of St.
Winefride they would obtain spiritual and temporal blessings. Through
the centuries preceding the Reformation, the Welsh Princes, the monarchs
of England and the nobles of both countries delighted to bestow marks
of their favour on Holywell and its shrine and Well of St. Winefride.
One of the greatest of these benefactors was the mother of Henry VII.,
Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, who, in the fifteenth century,
erected the handsome Gothic chapel and the Well beneath it. The water
was received in a magnificent polygonal basin, covered by a groined
arch, supported on pillars. The roof was elaborately carved in stone,
and many fine ribs secured the arch, whose intersections were completed
with sculpture. On one side of the wall was painted the history of St.
Winefride, whilst the arms of the foundress and those of Henry VII.,
Henry VIII., Catherine of Aragon, and other benefactors were incorporated
in the decorations.
Though the church of Holywell was devoted to other uses after the
Reformation, and recourse to the well was regarded as a “superstitious
practice,” the tide of visitors never completely ceased to flow. In 1629,
for example, a spy is found reporting Sir Cuthbert Clifton as being one
of a great number of “Papists and priests assembled at St. Winefride’s
Well on St. Winefride’s Day.”
The following paragraph from Archbishop Laud’s account of his Province
for the year 1633 also shows that in spite of all repressive measures
pilgrims resorted in great numbers to the well:—
“The Bishop of St. Asaph returns. That all is exceedingly
well in his diocese—save only that the number and boldness of
some Romish Recusants increaseth much in many Places, and is
encouraged by the superstitions and frequent concourse of some
of that party to Holy-Well, otherwise called St. Winifride’s
Well. Whether this Concourse be by way of Pilgrimage or no, I
know not; but I am sure it hath long been complained of without
remedy.”
One of the visitors in the year 1686 was James II: and in the following
year Father Thomas Roberts was appointed priest in charge. The well has
ever since been a favourite resort of stricken pilgrims and the modern
tourist in North Wales can still witness numerous pilgrims journeying
to St. Winefride’s in the hope of leaving their infirmities behind
them. The deaf, the dumb, the blind and the paralysed have for centuries
betaken themselves to this well in search of spiritual as well as
physical health and the votive crutches, chairs and barrows left hanging
over the well by the pilgrims who have been able to discard them bear
testimony to the healing virtues of its water or at least to the faith of
the people in such virtues.
In Lilly’s History of his life and times a story is given of Sir George
Peckham, Kt., who died in St. Winefride’s Well, “having continued so
long mumbling his paternosters and _Sancta Winifreda ora pro me_, that
the cold struck into his body and after his coming forth of that well he
never spoke more.”
Two recent Holywell cures were reported in the _Catholic Times and
Catholic Opinion_ of 21st July 1916. Mr. John MacMullan, whose address
was 49 Station-Road, Shettleston, Glasgow, decided to try the water
of St. Winefride’s Well after suffering for three years with chronic
spinal disease. He bathed in the waters for the first time on July 5th,
and again on July 6th, when he experienced a sharp shooting pain all
through the body. On July 10th after getting in the well he found that
he was able to walk up the steps which descended into the outer basin of
the well quite unaided and up to the 12th of July, when he returned to
Scotland, he was able to walk about freely.
The other noteworthy case following on a visit to St. Winefride’s Well
is that of Miss Elizabeth Stanley of 54, John Thomas Street, Blackburn.
She had her hand cut in a mill while working as a weaver and was unable
to work for two years. In quest of a cure she made a pilgrimage to St.
Winefride’s Well on the Feast of Corpus Christi. “Since her return from
Holywell,” it is reported, “she has followed her work without any ill
effects and is at present in the best of health.”
While this chapter was being written, a great calamity befell Holywell.
Owing to the boring operations of the Halken Draining Company the waters
of this famous well that had been flowing for 1400 years were drained
away on the 5th January 1917. The valley of Sychnant became once more
“the dry valley”, but to the great joy of the people of Holywell and of
the Catholic community everywhere the water was restored to the well on
the 22nd September 1917.
A few more healing wells in Great Britain may be noted. The “Hooping
Stone” on a farm near Athol, is a channeled boulder which catches rain,
and the water, especially if ladled out with a spoon made from the horn
of a living cow, cures many ailments. The “Fever Well” hard by is also
still in high repute. The Mayor and Burgesses of Shaftesbury still go
to dance round the sacred springs of Enmore Green, hand in hand to the
sound of music—or did so until recently. They carried a broom decked with
feathers, gold rings, and jewels, called a “prize bezant”, and presented
to the bailiff of the manor of Gillingham (where are the springs) a pair
of gloves, a raw calf’s head, a gallon of beer and two penny loaves.[28]
Another holy well, Roche Holy Well of Cornwall, is famous for curing eye
diseases. This well, which is dedicated to the lonely hermit by name St.
Conan, is endowed on Holy Thursday, and also the two Thursdays following,
with the property of curing eye diseases alike in young and old.
At Chapel Uny rickety children are dipped three times in the well against
the sun, and dragged three times round the well in the same direction.
In several instances such miraculous cures appear to be well
authenticated. Mr. Colin Bennett says that Jesus Well, St. Minver, and
Madron Holy Well, near Penzance, are cases in point. Bishop Hall, of
Exeter, who visited the latter well in 1640, absolutely vouches, in his
treatise on the _Invisible World_, for the cure of a man by name John
Trelille who had been lame from birth and had to crawl on all fours from
place to place. At last he decided to try the virtue of the waters of
this holy well for his complaint and, like Naaman of old, bathed himself
in the little spring, afterwards reclining for an hour and a half on a
grassy bank situated near by and known as St. Madrne’s bed while a friend
offered up simple prayers on his behalf. On the first occasion of this
treatment he got some relief, on the second he was able to stand on his
legs with the aid of a staff and on the third occasion he found himself
entirely cured. It is even said that in later life he enlisted in the
army and was eventually killed in battle, having previously done good
work for his country’s cause. Others have also been cured of the same
affliction in later times by precisely the same means. Close by this well
is the ancient oratory of St. Madrne, where on the first Sunday in May a
service is still held by the Wesleyans in commemoration of the saintly
man who once preached in that lonely spot the word of God. After the
service the Holy Well is visited by the people, some of whom, says Mr.
Bennett, “go so far as to consult it concerning futurity.”
Many springs in Macedonia are known and venerated as “sacred waters”;
dedicated to St. Friday and St. Solomoné among feminine saints, or
to St. Paul and St. Elias among their male colleagues. The water of
these springs is regarded as efficacious against diseases, especially
eye-complaints. Even so stood enclosed the “fair-flowing fountain
built by man’s hand, whence the citizens of Ithaca drew water,” and
close to it “an altar erected in honour of the Nymphs, upon which the
wayfarers offered sacrifice.” Like the Homeric “fountain of the Nymphs”
many a modern “holy spring” is overshadowed by “water-bred poplars or
broad-leaved fig-trees, and weeping willows.”[29]
Hundreds of cures are effected even now at the Church of the Annunciation
over the Chapel of the well during the Festival of Annunciation at Tenos.
During her visit to the place Miss Hamilton saw priests spooning out the
sacred water to an eager crowd, one by one, “after the fashion of a
medicine-giving nurse.” Miss Hamilton is, however, guilty of repeating
a very blasphemous story concerning a spring of therapeutic fame. Up to
quite recent times the festival at Kaisariani was very popular among the
Athenians and sick people were taken there for cure at the spring on the
Ascension Day, the only day on which the spring water ran into the little
Chapel, and in a miraculous way a white dove, the Holy Spirit, appeared
and wet its wings in the holy water. Then all the sick people drank of
the water or washed in it and expected to be healed. One festival day
this dove failed to appear, and the priest knocked with his foot and
whispered, “Let out the Holy Spirit.” A voice from the hole replied
audibly, “The cat has eaten it.” This was enough to suppress the miracle.
The pilgrimage described by Miss Hamilton recalls the vivid scenes in
Emile Zola’s famous novel _Lourdes_. In that masterpiece of his the great
master of Médan has given us a marvellously animated and poetic narrative
of the annual national pilgrimage to the famous Continental shrine. The
idea of human suffering pervades the whole story and the woful account
of the despairing sufferers given up by science and by man and of the
religious enthusiasm with which they address themselves to a higher
Power in the hope of relief and hasten to Lourdes and crowd themselves
round the miraculous Grotto, is touching indeed. The author, no doubt,
accompanies the stricken pilgrims without sharing their belief in the
virtues of the water of Lourdes. He witnesses several instances of real
cure, accepts the extraordinary manifestations of the healing power of
the waters, but tries to account for them on scientific grounds. Be the
explanation as it may, _Lourdes_ affords striking illustrations of the
faith of the people in the miracles of the enchanted fountain.