RIVER AND WELL WORSHIP.
Among the Celts the testimony of contemporary witnesses, inscriptions,
votive offerings, and survivals, shows the importance of the cult of
waters and of water divinities. Mr. Gomme argues that Celtic
water-worship was derived from the pre-Celtic aborigines,[597] but if
so, the Celts must have had a peculiar aptitude for it, since they were
so enthusiastic in its observance. What probably happened was that the
Celts, already worshippers of the waters, freely adopted local cults of
water wherever they came. Some rivers or river-goddesses in Celtic
regions seem to posses pre-Celtic names.[598]
Treasures were flung into a sacred lake near Toulouse to cause a
pestilence to cease. Caepion, who afterwards fished up this treasure,
fell soon after in battle--a punishment for cupidity, and _aurum
Tolosanum_ now became an expression for goods dishonestly acquired.[599]
A yearly festival, lasting three days, took place at Lake Gévaudan.
Garments, food, and wax were thrown into the waters, and animals were
sacrificed. On the fourth day, it is said, there never failed to spring
up a tempest of rain, thunder, and lightning--a strange reward for this
worship of the lake.[600] S. Columba routed the spirits of a Scottish
fountain which was worshipped as a god, and the well now became sacred,
perhaps to the saint himself, who washed in it and blessed it so that it
cured diseases.[601]
On inscriptions a river name is prefixed by some divine epithet--_dea_,
_augusta_, and the worshipper records his gratitude for benefits
received from the divinity or the river itself. Bormanus, Bormo or
Borvo, Danuvius (the Danube), and Luxovius are found on inscriptions as
names of river or fountain gods, but goddesses are more
numerous--Acionna, Aventia, Bormana, Brixia, Carpundia, Clutoida,
Divona, Sirona, Ura--well-nymphs; and Icauna (the Yonne), Matrona, and
Sequana (the Seine)--river-goddesses.[602] No inscription to the goddess
of a lake has yet been found. Some personal names like Dubrogenos (son
of the Dubron), Enigenus (son of the Aenus), and the belief of
Virdumarus that one of his ancestors was the Rhine,[603] point to the
idea that river-divinities might have amours with mortals and beget
progeny called by their names. In Ireland, Conchobar was so named from
the river whence his mother Nessa drew water, perhaps because he was a
child of the river-god.[604]
The name of the water-divinity was sometimes given to the place of his
or her cult, or to the towns which sprang up on the banks of rivers--the
divinity thus becoming a tutelary god. Many towns (e.g. Divonne or
Dyonne, etc.) have names derived from a common Celtic river name Deuona,
"divine." This name in various forms is found all over the Celtic
area,[605] and there is little doubt that the Celts, in their onward
progress, named river after river by the name of the same divinity,
believing that each new river was a part of his or her kingdom. The name
was probably first an appellative, then a personal name, the divine
river becoming a divinity. Deus Nemausus occurs on votive tablets at
Nimes, the name Nemausus being that of the clear and abundant spring
there whence flowed the river of the same name. A similar name occurs in
other regions--Nemesa, a tributary of the Moselle; Nemh, the source of
the Tara and the former name of the Blackwater; and Nimis, a Spanish
river mentioned by Appian. Another group includes the Matrona (Marne),
the Moder, the Madder, the Maronne and Maronna, and others, probably
derived from a word signifying "mother."[606] The mother-river was that
which watered a whole region, just as in the Hindu sacred books the
waters are mothers, sources of fertility. The Celtic mother-rivers were
probably goddesses, akin to the _Matres_, givers of plenty and
fertility. In Gaul, Sirona, a river-goddess, is represented like the
_Matres_. She was associated with Grannos, perhaps as his mother, and
Professor Rh[^y]s equates the pair with the Welsh Modron and Mabon;
Modron is probably connected with Matrona.[607] In any case the Celts
regarded rivers as bestowers of life, health, and plenty, and offered
them rich gifts and sacrifices.[608]
Gods like Grannos, Borvo, and others, equated with Apollo, presided over
healing springs, and they are usually associated with goddesses, as
their husbands or sons. But as the goddesses are more numerous, and as
most Celtic river names are feminine, female divinities of rivers and
springs doubtless had the earlier and foremost place, especially as
their cult was connected with fertility. The gods, fewer in number, were
all equated with Apollo, but the goddesses were not merged by the Romans
into the personality of one goddess, since they themselves had their
groups of river-goddesses, Nymphs and Naiads. Before the Roman conquest
the cult of water-divinities, friends of mankind, must have formed a
large part of the popular religion of Gaul, and their names may be
counted by hundreds. Thermal springs had also their genii, and they were
appropriated by the Romans, so that the local gods now shared their
healing powers with Apollo, Æsculapius, and the Nymphs. Thus every
spring, every woodland brook, every river in glen or valley, the roaring
cataract, and the lake were haunted by divine beings, mainly thought of
as beautiful females with whom the _Matres_ were undoubtedly associated.
There they revealed themselves to their worshippers, and when paganism
had passed away, they remained as _fées_ or fairies haunting spring, or
well, or river.[609] Scores of fairy wells still exist, and by them
mediæval knights had many a fabled amour with those beautiful beings
still seen by the "ignorant" but romantic peasant.
Sanctuaries were erected at these springs by grateful worshippers, and
at some of them festivals were held, or they were the resort of
pilgrims. As sources of fertility they had a place in the ritual of the
great festivals, and sacred wells were visited on Midsummer day, when
also the river-gods claimed their human victims. Some of the goddesses
were represented by statues or busts in Gallo-Roman times, if not
earlier, and other images of them which have been found were of the
nature of _ex votos_, presented by worshippers in gratitude for the
goddess's healing gifts. Money, ingots of gold or silver, and models of
limbs or other parts of the body which had been or were desired to be
healed, were also presented. Gregory of Tours says of the Gauls that
they "represent in wood or bronze the members in which they suffer, and
whose healing they desire, and place them in a temple."[610] Contact of
the model with the divinity brought healing to the actual limbs on the
principle of sympathetic magic. Many such models have been discovered.
Thus in the shrine of Dea Sequana was found a vase with over a hundred;
another contained over eight hundred. Inscriptions were engraved on
plaques which were fastened to the walls of temples, or placed in
springs.[611] Leaden tablets with inscriptions were placed in springs by
those who desired healing or when the waters were low, and on some the
actual waters are hardly discriminated from the divinities. The latter
are asked to heal or flow or swell--words which apply more to the waters
than to them, while the tablets, with their frank animism, also show
that, in some cases, there were many elemental spirits of a well, only
some of whom were rising to the rank of a goddess. They are called
collectively _Niskas_--the Nixies of later tradition, but some have
personal names--Lerano, Dibona, Dea--showing that they were tending to
become separate divine personalities. The Peisgi are also appealed to,
perhaps the later Piskies, unless the word is a corrupt form of a Celtic
_peiskos_, or the Latin _piscus_, "fish."[612] This is unlikely, as fish
could not exist in a warm sulphurous spring, though the Celts believed
in the sacred fish of wells or streams. The fairies now associated with
wells or with a water-world beneath them, are usually nameless, and only
in a few cases have a definite name. They, like the older spirits of the
wells, have generally a beneficent character.[613] Thus in the fountains
of Logres dwelt damsels who fed the wayfarer with meat and bread, until
grievous wrong was done them, when they disappeared and the land became
waste.[614] Occasionally, however, they have a more malevolent
character.[615]
The spirit of the waters was often embodied in an animal, usually a
fish. Even now in Brittany the fairy dweller in a spring has the form of
an eel, while in the seventeenth century Highland wells contained fish
so sacred that no one dared to catch them.[616] In Wales S. Cybi's well
contained a huge eel in whose virtues the villagers believed, and terror
prevailed when any one dared to take it from the water. Two sacred fish
still exist in a holy well at Nant Peris, and are replaced by others
when they die, the dead fish being buried.[617] This latter act,
solemnly performed, is a true sign of the divine or sacred character of
the animal. Many wells with sacred fish exist in Ireland, and the fish
have usually some supernatural quality--they never alter in size, they
become invisible, or they take the form of beautiful women.[618] Any one
destroying such fish was regarded as a sacrilegious person, and
sometimes a hostile tribe killed and ate the sacred fish of a district
invaded by them, just as Egyptians of one nome insulted those of another
by killing their sacred animals.[619] In old Irish beliefs the salmon
was the fish of knowledge. Thus whoever ate the salmon of Connla's well
was dowered with the wisdom which had come to them through eating nuts
from the hazels of knowledge around the well. In this case the sacred
fish was eaten, but probably by certain persons only--those who had the
right to do so. Sinend, who went to seek inspiration from the well,
probably by eating one of its salmon, was overwhelmed by its waters. The
legend of the salmon is perhaps based on old ritual practices of the
occasional eating of a divine animal. In other cases, legends of a
miraculous supply of fish from sacred wells are perhaps later Christian
traditions of former pagan beliefs or customs concerning magical methods
of increasing a sacred or totem animal species, like those used in
Central Australia and New Guinea.[620] The frog is sometimes the sacred
animal, and this recalls the _Märchen_ of the Frog Bridegroom living in
a well, who insisted on marrying the girl who drew its waters. Though
this tale is not peculiar to the Celts, it is not improbable that the
divine animal guardian of a well may have become the hero of a
folk-tale, especially as such wells were sometimes tabu to women.[621] A
fly was the guardian spirit of S. Michael's well in Banffshire. Auguries
regarding health were drawn from its movements, and it was believed that
the fly, when it grew old, transmigrated into another.[622]
Such beliefs were not peculiarly Celtic. They are found in all European
folk-lore, and they are still alive among savages--the animal being
itself divine or the personification of a divinity. A huge sacred eel
was worshipped by the Fijians; in North America and elsewhere there were
serpent guardians of the waters; and the Semites worshipped the fish of
sacred wells as incarnations or symbols of a god.
Later Celtic folk-belief associated monstrous and malevolent beings with
rivers and lakes. These may be the older divinities to whom a demoniac
form has been given, but even in pagan times such monstrous beings may
have been believed in, or they may be survivals of the more primitive
monstrous guardians of the waters. The last were dragons or serpents,
conventional forms of the reptiles which once dwelt in watery places,
attacking all who came near. This old idea certainly survived in Irish
and Highland belief, for the Fians conquered huge dragons or serpents in
lochs, or saints chained them to the bottom of the waters. Hence the
common place-name of Loch na piast, "Loch of the Monster." In other
tales they emerge and devour the impious or feast on the dead.[623] The
_Dracs_ of French superstition--river monsters who assume human form and
drag down victims to the depths, where they devour them--resemble these.
The _Each Uisge_, or "Water-horse," a horse with staring eyes, webbed
feet, and a slimy coat, is still dreaded. He assumes different forms and
lures the unwary to destruction, or he makes love in human shape to
women, some of whom discover his true nature by seeing a piece of
water-weed in his hair, and only escape with difficulty. Such a
water-horse was forced to drag the chariot of S. Fechin of Fore, and
under his influence became "gentler than any other horse."[624] Many
Highland lochs are still haunted by this dreaded being, and he is also
known in Ireland and France, where, however, he has more of a tricky and
less of a demoniac nature.[625] His horse form is perhaps connected with
the similar form ascribed to Celtic water-divinities. Manannan's horses
were the waves, and he was invariably associated with a horse. Epona,
the horse-goddess, was perhaps originally goddess of a spring, and, like
the _Matres_, she is sometimes connected with the waters.[626] Horses
were also sacrificed to river-divinities.[627] But the beneficent
water-divinities in their horse form have undergone a curious
distortion, perhaps as the result of later Christian influences. The
name of one branch of the Fomorians, the Goborchinn, means the
"Horse-headed," and one of their kings was Eochaid Echchenn, or
"Horse-head."[628] Whether these have any connection with the
water-horse is uncertain.
The foaming waters may have suggested another animal personification,
since the name of the Boyne in Ptolemy, [Greek: bououinda], is derived
from a primitive _bóu-s_, "ox," and _vindo-s_, "white," in Irish _bó
find_, "white cow."[629] But it is not certain that this or the Celtic
cult of the bull was connected with the belief in the _Tarbh Uisge_, or
"Water-bull," which had no ears and could assume other shapes. It dwells
in lochs and is generally friendly to man, occasionally emerging to mate
with ordinary cows. In the Isle of Man the _Tarroo Ushtey_, however,
begets monsters.[630] These Celtic water-monsters have a curious
resemblance to the Australian _Bunyip_.
The _Uruisg_, often confused with the brownie, haunts lonely places and
waterfalls, and, according to his mood, helps or harms the wayfarer. His
appearance is that of a man with shaggy hair and beard.[631] In Wales
the _afanc_ is a water-monster, though the word first meant "dwarf,"
then "water-dwarf," of whom many kinds existed. They correspond to the
Irish water-dwarfs, the _Luchorpáin_, descended with the Fomorians and
Goborchinn from Ham.[632]
In other cases the old water beings have a more pleasing form, like the
syrens and other fairy beings who haunt French rivers, or the mermaids
of Irish estuaries.[633] In Celtic France and Britain lake fairies are
connected with a water-world like that of Elysium tales, the region of
earlier divinities.[634] They unite with mortals, who, as in the
Swan-maiden tales, lose their fairy brides through breaking a tabu. In
many Welsh tales the bride is obtained by throwing bread and cheese on
the waters, when she appears with an old man who has all the strength of
youth. He presents his daughter and a number of fairy animals to the
mortal. When she disappears into the waters after the breaking of the
tabu, the lake is sometimes drained in order to recover her; the father
then appears and threatens to submerge the whole district. Father and
daughters are earlier lake divinities, and in the bread and cheese we
may see a relic of the offerings to these.[635]
Human sacrifice to water-divinities is suggested by the belief that
water-monsters devour human beings, and by the tradition that a river
claims its toll of victims every year. In popular rhymes the annual
character of the sacrifice is hinted at, and Welsh legend tells of a
voice heard once a year from rivers or lakes, crying, "The hour is come,
but the man is not."[636] Here there is the trace of an abandoned custom
of sacrifice and of the traditional idea of the anger of the divinity at
being neglected. Such spirits or gods, like the water-monsters, would be
ever on the watch to capture those who trespassed on their domain. In
some cases the victim is supposed to be claimed on Midsummer eve, the
time of the sacrifice in the pagan period.[637] The spirits of wells had
also a harmful aspect to those, at least, who showed irreverence in
approaching them. This is seen in legends about the danger of looking
rashly into a well or neglecting to cover it, or in the belief that one
must not look back after visiting the well. Spirits of wells were also
besought to do harm to enemies.
Legends telling of the danger of removing or altering a well, or of the
well moving elsewhere because a woman washed her hands in it, point to
old tabus concerning wells. Boand, wife of Nechtain, went to the fairy
well which he and his cup-bearers alone might visit, and when she showed
her contempt for it, the waters rose and destroyed her. They now flow as
the river Boyne. Sinend met with a similar fate for intruding on
Connla's well, in this case the pursuing waters became the Shannon.[638]
These are variants of a story which might be used to explain the origin
of any river, but the legends suggest that certain wells were tabu to
women because certain branches of knowledge, taught by the well, must be
reserved for men.[639] The legends said in effect, "See what came of
women obtruding beyond their proper sphere." Savage "mysteries" are
usually tabu to women, who also exclude men from their sacred rites. On
the other hand, as all tribal lore was once in the hands of the wise
woman, such tabus and legends may have arisen when men began to claim
such lore. In other legends women are connected with wells, as the
guardians who must keep them locked up save when water was drawn. When
the woman neglected to replace the cover, the waters burst forth,
overwhelming her, and formed a loch.[640] The woman is the priestess of
the well who, neglecting part of its ritual, is punished. Even in recent
times we find sacred wells in charge of a woman who instructs the
visitors in the due ritual to be performed.[641] If such legends and
survivals thus point to former Celtic priestesses of wells, these are
paralleled by the Norse Horgabrudar, guardians of wells, now elves
living in the waters.[642] That such legends are based on the ritual of
well-worship is suggested by Boand's walking three times _widdershins_
round the well, instead of the customary _deiseil_. The due ritual must
be observed, and the stories are a warning against its neglect.
In spite of twenty centuries of Christianity and the anathemas of saints
and councils, the old pagan practices at healing wells have survived--a
striking instance of human conservatism. S. Patrick found the pagans of
his day worshipping a well called _Slán_, "health-giving," and offering
sacrifices to it,[643] and the Irish peasant to-day has no doubt that
there is something divine about his holy wells. The Celts brought the
belief in the divinity of springs and wells with them, but would
naturally adopt local cults wherever they found them. Afterwards the
Church placed the old pagan wells under the protection of saints, but
part of the ritual often remained unchanged. Hence many wells have been
venerated for ages by different races and through changes in religion
and polity. Thus at the thermal springs of Vicarello offerings have been
found which show that their cult has continued from the Stone Age,
through the Bronze Age, to the days of Roman civilisation, and so into
modern times; nor is this a solitary instance.[644] But it serves to
show that all races, high and low, preserve the great outlines of
primitive nature religion unchanged. In all probability the ritual of
the healing wells has also remained in great part unaltered, and
wherever it is found it follows the same general type. The patient
perambulated the well three times _deiseil_ or sun-wise, taking care not
to utter a word. Then he knelt at the well and prayed to the divinity
for his healing. In modern times the saint, but occasionally the well
itself, is prayed to.[645] Then he drank of the waters, bathed in them,
or laved his limbs or sores, probably attended by the priestess of the
well. Having paid her dues, he made an offering to the divinity of the
well, and affixed the bandage or part of his clothing to the well or a
tree near by, that through it he might be in continuous _rapport_ with
the healing influences. Ritual formulæ probably accompanied these acts,
but otherwise no word was spoken, and the patient must not look back on
leaving the well. Special times, Beltane, Midsummer, or August 1st, were
favourable for such visits,[646] and where a patient was too ill to
present himself at the well, another might perform the ritual for
him.[647]
The rag or clothing hung on the tree seems to connect the spirit of the
tree with that of the well, and tree and well are often found together.
But sometimes it is thrown into the well, just as the Gaulish villagers
of S. Gregory's day threw offerings of cloth and wool into a sacred
lake.[648] The rag is even now regarded in the light of an offering, and
such offerings, varying from valuable articles of clothing to mere rags,
are still hung on sacred trees by the folk. It thus probably has always
had a sacrificial aspect in the ritual of the well, but as magic and
religion constantly blend, it had also its magical aspect. The rag, once
in contact with the patient, transferred his disease to the tree, or,
being still subtly connected with him, through it the healing properties
passed over to him.
The offering thrown into the well--a pin, coin, etc., may also have this
double aspect. The sore is often pricked or rubbed with the pin as if to
transfer the disease to the well, and if picked up by another person,
the disease may pass to him. This is also true of the coin.[649] But
other examples show the sacrificial nature of the pin or other trifle,
which is probably symbolic or a survival of a more costly offering. In
some cases it is thought that those who do not leave it at the well from
which they have drunk will die of thirst, and where a coin is offered it
is often supposed to disappear, being taken by the spirit of the
well.[650] The coin has clearly the nature of an offering, and sometimes
it must be of gold or silver, while the antiquity of the custom on
Celtic ground is seen by the classical descriptions of the coins
glittering in the pool of Clitumnus and of the "gold of Toulouse" hid in
sacred tanks.[651] It is also an old and widespread belief that all
water belongs to some divine or monstrous guardian, who will not part
with any of it without a _quid pro quo_. In many cases the two rites of
rag and pin are not both used, and this may show that originally they
had the same purpose--magical or sacrificial, or perhaps both. Other
sacrifices were also made--an animal, food, or an _ex voto_, the last
occurring even in late survivals as at S. Thenew's Well, Glasgow, where
even in the eighteenth century tin cut to represent the diseased member
was placed on the tree, or at S. Winifred's Well in Wales, where
crutches were left.
Certain waters had the power of ejecting the demon of madness. Besides
drinking, the patient was thrown into the waters, the shock being
intended to drive the demon away, as elsewhere demons are exorcised by
flagellation or beating. The divinity of the waters aided the process,
and an offering was usually made to him. In other cases the sacred
waters were supposed to ward off disease from the district or from those
who drank of them. Or, again, they had the power of conferring
fertility. Women made pilgrimages to wells, drank or bathed in the
waters, implored the spirit or saint to grant them offspring, and made a
due offering.[652] Spirit or saint, by a transfer of his power, produced
fruitfulness, but the idea was in harmony with the recognised power of
water to purify, strengthen, and heal. Women, for a similar reason,
drank or washed in the waters or wore some articles dipped in them, in
order to have an easy delivery or abundance of milk.[653]
The waters also gave oracles, their method of flowing, the amount of
water in the well, the appearance or non-appearance of bubbles at the
surface when an offering was thrown in, the sinking or floating of
various articles, all indicating whether a cure was likely to occur,
whether fortune or misfortune awaited the inquirer, or, in the case of
girls, whether their lovers would be faithful. The movements of the
animal guardian of the well were also ominous to the visitor.[654]
Rivers or river divinities were also appealed to. In cases of suspected
fidelity the Celts dwelling by the Rhine placed the newly-born child in
a shield on the waters. If it floated the mother was innocent; if it
sank it was allowed to drown, and she was put to death.[655] Girls whose
purity was suspected were similarly tested, and S. Gregory of Tours
tells how a woman accused of adultery was proved by being thrown into
the Saône.[656] The mediæval witch ordeal by water is connected with
this custom, which is, however, widespread.[657]
The malevolent aspect of the spirit of the well is seen in the "cursing
wells" of which it was thought that when some article inscribed with an
enemy's name was thrown into them with the accompaniment of a curse, the
spirit of the well would cause his death. In some cases the curse was
inscribed on a leaden tablet thrown into the waters, just as, in other
cases, a prayer for the offerer's benefit was engraved on it. Or, again,
objects over which a charm had been said were placed in a well that the
victim who drew water might be injured. An excellent instance of a
cursing-well is that of Fynnon Elian in Denbigh, which must once have
had a guardian priestess, for in 1815 an old woman who had charge of it
presided at the ceremony. She wrote the name of the victim in a book,
receiving a gift at the same time. A pin was dropped into the well in
the name of the victim, and through it and through knowledge of his
name, the spirit of the well acted upon him to his hurt.[658] Obviously
rites like these, in which magic and religion mingle, are not purely
Celtic, but it is of interest to note their existence in Celtic lands
and among Celtic folk.
FOOTNOTES:
[597] _Ethnol. in Folklore_, 104 f.
[598] D'Arbois, _PH_ ii. 132, 169; Dottin, 240.
[599] Justin, xxxii. 3; Strabo, iv. 1. 13.
[600] S. Gregory, _In Glor. Conf._ ch. 2. Perhaps the feast and
offerings were intended to cause rain in time of drought. See p. 321,
_infra_.
[601] Adamman, _Vita Colum._ ii. 10.
[602] See Holder, _s.v._
[603] D'Arbois, _RC_ x. 168, xiv. 377; _CIL_ xii. 33; Propertius, iv.
10. 41.
[604] See p. 349, _infra_.
[605] Cf. Ptolemy's [Greek: Dêouana] and [Greek: Dêouna] (ii. 3. 19, 11.
29); the Scots and English Dee; the Divy in Wales; Dêve, Dive, and
Divette in France; Devon in England; Deva in Spain (Ptolemy's [Greek:
Dêoua], ii. 6. 8). The Shannon is surnamed even in the seventh century
"the goddess" (_Trip. Life_, 313).
[606] Holder, _s.v._; D'Arbois, _PH_ ii. 119, thinks _Matrona_ is
Ligurian. But it seems to have strong Celtic affinities.
[607] Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 27-29, _RC_ iv. 137.
[608] On the whole subject see Pictet, "Quelques noms celtiques de
rivières," _RC_ ii. 1 f. Orosius, v. 15. 6, describes the sacrifices of
gold, silver, and horses, made to the Rhône.
[609] Maury, 18. By extension of this belief any divinity might appear
by the haunted spring. S. Patrick and his synod of bishops at an Irish
well were supposed to be _síd_ or gods (p. 64, _supra_.) By a fairy well
Jeanne d'Arc had her first vision.
[610] Greg. Tours, _Vita Patr._ c. 6.
[611] See Reinach, _Catal. Sommaire_, 23, 115; Baudot, _Rapport sur les
fouilles faits aux sources de la Seine_, ii. 120; _RC_ ii. 26.
[612] For these tablets see Nicolson, _Keltic Studies_, 131 f.; Jullian,
_RC_ 1898.
[613] Sébillot, ii. 195.
[614] Prologue to Chrestien's _Conte du Graal_.
[615] Sébillot, ii. 202 f.
[616] Ibid. 196-197; Martin, 140-141; Dalyell, 411.
[617] Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 366; _Folk-Lore_, viii. 281. If the fish
appeared when an invalid drank of the well, this was a good omen. For
the custom of burying sacred animals, see Herod, ii. 74; Ælian, xiii.
26.
[618] Gomme, _Ethnol. in Folklore_, 92.
[619] _Trip. Life_, 113; Tigernach, _Annals_, A.D. 1061.
[620] Mackinley, 184.
[621] Burne, _Shropshire Folk-Lore_, 416; Campbell, _WHT_ ii. 145.
[622] _Old Stat. Account_, xii. 465.
[623] S. Patrick, when he cleared Ireland of serpents, dealt in this way
with the worst specimens. S. Columba quelled a monster which terrified
the dwellers by the Ness. Joyce, _PN_ i. 197; Adamnan, _Vita Columb._
ii. 28; Kennedy, 12, 82, 246; _RC_ iv. 172, 186.
[624] _RC_ xii. 347.
[625] For the water-horse, see Campbell, _WHT_ iv. 307; Macdongall, 294;
Campbell, _Superstitions_, 203; and for the Manx _Glashtyn_, a kind of
water-horse, see Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 285. For French cognates, see
Bérenger-Féraud, _Superstitions et Survivances_, i. 349 f.
[626] Reinach, _CMR_ i. 63.
[627] Orosius, v. 15. 6.
[628] _LU_ 2_a_. Of Eochaid is told a variant of the Midas story--the
discovery of his horse's ears. This is also told of Labraid Lore (_RC_
ii. 98; Kennedy, 256) and of King Marc'h in Brittany and in Wales (Le
Braz, ii. 96; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ 233). Other variants are found in
non-Celtic regions, so the story has no mythological significance on
Celtic ground.
[629] Ptol. ii. 2. 7.
[630] Campbell, _WHT_ iv. 300 f.; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 284; Waldron, _Isle
of Man_, 147.
[631] Macdougall, 296; Campbell, _Superstitions_, 195. For the Uruisg as
Brownie, see _WHT_ ii. 9; Graham, _Scenery of Perthshire_, 19.
[632] Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ ii. 431, 469, _HL_, 592; _Book of Taliesin_, vii.
135.
[633] Sébillot, ii. 340; _LL_ 165; _IT_ i. 699.
[634] Sébillot, ii. 409.
[635] See Pughe, _The Physicians of Myddfai_, 1861 (these were
descendants of a water-fairy); Rh[^y]s, _Y Cymmrodor_, iv. 164;
Hartland, _Arch. Rev._ i. 202. Such water-gods with lovely daughters are
known in most mythologies--the Greek Nereus and the Nereids, the
Slavonic Water-king, and the Japanese god Ocean-Possessor (Ralston,
_Songs of the Russian People_, 148; Chamberlain, _Ko-ji-ki_, 120).
Manannan had nine daughters (Wood-Martin, i. 135).
[636] Sébillot, ii. 338, 344; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 243; Henderson,
_Folk-Lore of the N. Counties_, 262. Cf. the rhymes, "L'Arguenon veut
chaque année son poisson," the "fish" being a human victim, and
"Blood-thirsty Dee
Each year needs three,
But bonny Don,
She needs none."
[637] Sébillot, ii. 339.
[638] _Rendes Dindsenchas_, _RC_ xv. 315, 457. Other instances of
punishment following misuse of a well are given in Sébillot, ii. 192;
Rees, 520, 523. An Irish lake no longer healed after a hunter swam his
mangy hounds through it (Joyce, _PN_ ii. 90). A similar legend occurs
with the Votiaks, one of whose sacred lakes was removed to its present
position because a woman washed dirty clothes in it (_L'Anthropologie_,
xv. 107).
[639] Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 392.
[640] Girald. Cambr. _Itin. Hib._ ii. 9; Joyce, _OCR_ 97; Kennedy, 281;
O'Grady, i. 233; Skene, ii. 59; Campbell, _WHT_ ii. 147. The waters
often submerge a town, now seen below the waves--the town of Is in
Armorica (Le Braz, i. p. xxxix), or the towers under Lough Neagh. In
some Welsh instances a man is the culprit (Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 379). In
the case of Lough Neagh the keeper of the well was Liban, who lived on
in the waters as a mermaid. Later she was caught and received the
baptismal name of Muirghenn, "sea-birth." Here the myth of a
water-goddess, said to have been baptized, is attached to the legend of
the careless guardian of a spring, with whom she is identified (O'Grady,
ii. 184, 265).
[641] Roberts, _Cambrian Pop. Antiq._ 246; Hunt, _Popular Romances_,
291; _New Stat. Account_, x. 313.
[642] Thorpe, _Northern Myth._ ii. 78.
[643] Joyce, _PN_ ii. 84. _Slán_ occurs in many names of wells.
Well-worship is denounced in the canons of the Fourth Council of Arles.
[644] Cartailhac, _L'Age de Pierre_, 74; Bulliot et Thiollier, _Mission
de S. Martin_, 60.
[645] Sébillot, ii. 284.
[646] Dalyell, 79-80; Sébillot, ii. 282, 374; see p. 266, _infra_.
[647] I have compiled this account of the ritual from notices of the
modern usages in various works. See, e.g., Moore, _Folk-Lore_, v. 212;
Mackinley, _passim_; Hope, _Holy Wells_; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_; Sébillot, 175
f.; Dixon, _Gairloch_, 150 f.
[648] Brand, ii. 68; Greg. _In Glor. Conf._ c. 2.
[649] Sébillot, ii. 293, 296; _Folk-Lore_, iv. 55.
[650] Mackinley, 194; Sébillot, ii. 296.
[651] _Folk-Lore_, iii. 67; _Athenæum_, 1893, 415; Pliny, _Ep._ viii. 8;
Strabo, iv. 287; Diod. Sic. v. 9.
[652] Walker, _Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot._ vol. v.; Sébillot, ii. 232. In
some early Irish instances a worm swallowed with the waters by a woman
causes pregnancy. See p. 352, _infra_.
[653] Sébillot, ii. 235-236.
[654] See Le Braz, i. 61; _Folk-Lore_, v. 214; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 364;
Dalyell, 506-507; Scott, _Minstrelsy_, Introd. xliii; Martin, 7;
Sébillot, ii. 242 f.; _RC_ ii. 486.
[655] Jullian, _Ep. to Maximin_, 16. The practice may have been
connected with that noted by Aristotle, of plunging the newly-born into
a river, to strengthen it, as he says (_Pol._ vii. 15. 2), but more
probably as a baptismal or purificatory rite. See p. 309, _infra_.
[656] Lefevre, _Les Gaulois_, 109; Michelet, _Origines du droit
français_, 268.
[657] See examples of its use in Post, _Grundriss der Ethnol.
Jurisprudenz_, ii. 459 f.
[658] Roberts, _Cambrian Popular Antiquities_, 246.