This beautiful song of the well is taken from the Jewish scriptures. Budde believes that the song alludes to a custom by which when a well or spring was found, it was lightly covered over, and then opened by the Sheikhs in the presence of the clan and to the accompaniment of a song. In this way, by the fiction of having dug it, the well was regarded as the property of the clan. He thinks that a passage in Nilus (Migne, “Patrologia Graeca”), to which Goldziber has called attention, confirms this view. Nilus says that when the nomadic Arabs found a well they danced by it and sang songs to it. According to Kazivini when the water of the wells of Ilabistan failed, a feast was held at the source, with music and dancing, to induce it to flow again.

In India when a well is to be dug, an expert is first called to select a favourable site. To some experts such sites are revealed in dreams. Some possess the faculty of hearing the sound of water running underneath, others point out the sites by smelling out sweet water underground. The Bombay Gazetteer bears testimony to the wonderful faculties of these experts. “Sites for wells,” says the writer,[52] “are chosen with great success by water-diviners, or pánikals, whose services can be engaged at the rate of Re. 1-4 a well. Their judgment is unerring and many instances are on record of their practical ability. They can also generally tell at what depth the spring will be tapped.”

The sniffers are known as Bhonyesunghna in Gujarat and Cutch, and as Sunga in the Punjab, and they generally belong to a class of Faqirs gifted with this faculty. The Luniyas, a caste of navvies, are also endowed with these powers. In the Punjab a herd of goats is driven about in search of sites of deserted wells. When these goats arrive at the right spot, they lie down and that is a signal for a search.

Water-diviners are not unknown in the West. One of the extraordinary incidents of the recent Gallipoli campaign was the discovery of water by a Kentish water-diviner at Suvla Bay. During the critical hours which followed the landing at the place in August 1915, the great problem for the officers was to find water on that parched land. The experts had examined the district and reported that there was no water to be got there, but Sapper Stephen Kelly, of the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade, a hydraulic engineer of Melbourne, possessed the gift for water-divining. While he was standing with Captain Shearen, a New Zealand Officer, in the line of communications, he cried out, “There’s water here where we’re standing.” News of his reputation had reached Brigadier-General Hughes, who sent for him immediately and asked him if he could find water. The Sapper was confident of finding it. The Brigadier gave him a sporting chance and put a thousand men under his direction. Within a few hours he opened up a well which had been sunk. In a little more time he had thirty wells going with sufficient water to supply every man with a gallon a day and every mule with its six gallons, and this of pure cold spring water “instead of the lukewarm liquor from kerosene tins off the transport.”

The army’s engineers were astonished by Sapper Kelly’s success, especially as he was without paper plans. When they asked him about it, he replied that it would take him about half the time to get the wells going that it would to draw up the plans. Sapper Kelly was a Kent man, born in Maidstone. He went out to Queensland when a small boy. At that time an old water-diviner arrived in the neighbourhood and tried his art in that locality. The boy trotted after the old man in his twistings and turnings about the paddock with a divining twig in his hand and when the old man found water, the boy “felt his nerves twitch and a thrill go through him that wasn’t just excitement.” He thought he would try too, and he did. From that moment he had practised his powers. At Suvla, he said, he got better results with a copper rod instead of the divining twig.

We are not aware of any ceremonies connected with the digging of wells in the West, but in India it is regarded as a very important function requiring care and caution and, above all, propitiation of the deities. A Brahmin is consulted as to the auspicious hour when the work of digging should commence. The auspicious days vary in different places. In Gujarat, Tuesdays and the days on which the earth sleeps are avoided; and the earth is supposed to be asleep on the 1st, the 7th, the 9th, the 10th, the 14th and the 24th days following a Sankranti, i.e., the day on which the sun crosses from one constellation to another. With the exception of these days, a date is generally selected on which the chandra-graha, or the moon, is favourable to the constructor of the well.

On the appointed day, the water diviner, the constructor of the well, the Brahmin priest, and the labourers go to the place where the well is to be dug, and an image of the god Ganpati, the protector of all auspicious ceremonies, is first installed on the spot and worshipped with panchamrit, a punch or mixture of milk, curds, ghee, honey and sugar. A green-coloured piece of atlas (silk cloth), about two feet long, is then spread on the spot, and a pound and a quarter of wheat, a cocoanut, betels, dates and copper coins are placed on it. A copper bowl filled with water and containing some silver or gold coins is also placed there. The mouth of the bowl is covered with the leaves of the mango tree and a cocoanut is placed over the leaves. After this the priest chants sacred hymns and asks his host to perform the Khat ceremonies.

These Khat-muhurt or Khat-puja must be performed before commencing the construction not only of wells, reservoirs and tanks, but also of all works above or under the ground, such as setting the nankestambha, or the first pillar of a marriage bower, or a bower for a thread ceremony, or laying the foundation-stone of a house or temple, or a sacrificial pit, or of a street, or fortress, or a city or a village. The earth-mother is then worshipped in the manner prescribed in the shashtras to propitiate her against interruptions in the completion of the work undertaken. The owner or the person interested in the new work pours a little water on the earth where the foundation-pit is to be dug, sprinkles red lead and gulal (red powder), places a betel-nut and a few precious coins, and digs out the first clod of earth himself. Rich persons use silver or golden spades and hoes when turning up the first clod. Among the usual offerings to Ganpati and to the earth on the occasion are curd, milk, honey, molasses, cocoanuts, dhana (a kind of spices), leaves of nagarval (a kind of creeper) and red lead. The expert who is called to choose a proper site for the well offers frankincense and a cocoanut to the spot, and lights a lamp thereon. After the Khat ceremonies are over, the host distributes sugar or molasses among those present and offers money to the expert who generally refuses to accept it and asks the host to dispose of it in charity. Even those who accept money give away a part of it in alms to the poor.

Occasionally, with a view to securing unobstructed completion of the work, the god Ganpati and the goddess Jaladevi are installed and worshipped daily, until water appears in the well. Some people, however, install the goddess Jaladevi after the appearance of water, when a stone is taken out from the bottom of the well and is plastered with red lead to represent the goddess and is ceremoniously worshipped. When the construction of the well is complete, a ceremony called Vastu or jalostsana or water-festival is celebrated, Brahmins are entertained at a feast and dakshina is given.[53]

In the Punjab, the work of digging a well should begin on Sunday. On the previous Saturday night little bowls of water are placed round the proposed site, and the one which dries up the least marks the best site for the well. The circumference is then marked and the work of digging commenced, the central lump of earth being left intact. This clod of earth is cut out last and it is called Khwajaji, after Khwaja Khizr, the water-saint, and is worshipped. If it breaks, it is a bad omen, and a new site is selected a week later.

In the north-east a Pandit fixes the auspicious moment for sinking a well. The owner then worships Gauri, Ganesha, Shesha Naga, the world-serpent, the earth, the spade and the nine planets. Then facing in the direction in which, according to the directions of the Pandit, Shesha Naga is supposed to be lying at the time, he cuts five clods with the spade. When the workmen reach the point at which the wooden well-cush has to be fixed, the owner smears the cush in five places with red powder and tying dub-grass and a sacred thread to it, lowers it into its place. A fire sacrifice is then offered, and Brahmins are fed. When the well is ready, cow-dung, cow urine, milk, butter and Ganges water, leaves of sacred Tulsi and honey are thrown into the water before it is used. In the Konkan a golden cow is thrown into a newly built well as an offering to the water deities.[54]

But, according to Crookes, no well is considered lucky until the Salagrama, or the spiral ammonite sacred to Vishnu, is solemnly wedded to the Tulsi or basil plant, representing the garden or field which the well is intended to water. The rite is performed according to the standard marriage formula: the relations are assembled; the owner of the garden represents the bridegroom, while a kinsman or his wife stands for the bride. Gifts are given to Brahmins, a feast is held in the garden, and both the garden and the well may then be used without any danger.

CHAPTER XVI.
DECORATIONS AND OFFERINGS.

We have seen that the Indian method of venerating a well was to crown it with flowers, to cover it with jalis or trellis work of flowers, to illumine it with ghee-lamps placed in niches specially made for the purpose and to strew the pavement with cocoanuts, betel-nuts, sugar and sweets and milk and ghee and to smear it with red lead. We have also noticed that floral decoration and garland-dressing is an act of simple reverence, being a survival of the earlier and more primitive practices and ceremonials. The other offerings, however, particularly cocoanut, and the practice of smearing the pavement with red lead point to beliefs associating spirits with water, and these are survivals of the ancient cult of human and animal sacrifices offered to the water-spirit. The cocoanut, resembling a human head, is accepted by the spirits, in lieu of a human being, similarly red lead does duty for the blood of animal victims. The Germans hoodwink the water-spirit with another curious substitute and that is a loaf of bread. It is the practice to throw a loaf into the water at Rotenburg on the Neckar. If this offering is not given, the river-spirit would take away a man. The practice of placing lamps inside the well also points to spirit-beliefs. The lights, it is hoped, would scare away evil spirits from the water.

There is enough anthropological evidence to show that at one time human sacrifices were offered in east and west alike to the spirits of fire, earth and water. Numerous authorities may be cited. The Indian practices are well known. For continental examples we may select only one from Sir James Frazer’s Golden Bough concerning the practice of burning humans beings in the fires. The most unequivocal traces of human sacrifices offered on these occasions are those which, about a hundred years ago, still lingered at the Beltane fires in the Highlands of Scotland, that is, among a Celtic people who, situated in a remote corner of Europe and almost completely isolated from foreign influence, had till then conserved their old heathenism better than any other people in the west of Europe. “It is significant,” says Sir James Frazer, “that human sacrifices by fire are known, on unquestionable evidence, to have been systematically practised by the Celts. The earliest description of these sacrifices has been bequeathed to us by Julius Cæsar. As conqueror of the hitherto independent Celts of Gaul, Cæsar had ample opportunity of observing the national Celtic religion and manners, while these were still fresh and crisp from the native mint and had not yet been fused in the melting-pot of Roman civilization.... The following seem to have been the main outlines of the custom. Condemned criminals were reserved by the Celts in order to be sacrificed to the gods at a great festival which took place once in every five years. The more there were of such victims, the greater was believed to be the fertility of the land. If there were not enough criminals to furnish victims, captives taken in war were immolated to supply the deficiency. When the time came, the victims were sacrificed by the Druids or priests, some they shot down with arrows, some they impaled, and some they burned alive in the following manner. Colossal images of wicker-work or of wood and grass were constructed; these were filled with live men, cattle and animals of other kinds; fire was then applied to the images, and they were burned with their living contents. Such were the great festivals held once every five years. But besides these quinquennial festivals, celebrated on so grand a scale and with, apparently, so large an expenditure of human life, it seems reasonable to suppose that festivals of the same sort, only on a lesser scale, were held annually, and that from these annual festivals are lineally descended some at least of the fire-festivals which, with their traces of human sacrifices, are still celebrated year by year in many parts of Europe.”

Similarly, in pagan Europe water claimed its human victims on Midsummer Day. We have already seen that in England the spirits of the River Tees, the Skerne and the Ribble, the Spey and the Dee demand human victims. We have also seen how the river sprites in Germany transcend the rest of the spirits in Europe in their blood-thirstiness. We also learn from Tacitus that the ancient Germans offered human sacrifices. He tells us that the image of the goddess Nerthus, her vestments and chariot were washed in a certain lake, and that immediately afterwards the slaves who ministered to the goddess were swallowed by the lake. The statement may perhaps be understood to mean that the slaves were drowned as a sacrifice to the deity.

The next stage was that of animal sacrifices. It is well known that just as goats and buffaloes were sacrificed in India, so were bulls and calves offered to the deities in Europe. In Bombay cocks and goats are still offered to water. The wells on the continent, however, seldom receive animal offerings in these days. Only in one case, namely in the case of St. Tegla’s Well, which is resorted to for the cure of epilepsy, we find the patient offering a cock or a hen. The usual offerings at other wells are rags and ribbons, pins and needles, nails and shells, buttons and coins, and sometimes bread and cheese. It will, therefore, be news to many that in Great Britain the lamb was the votive offering for water. Sir Laurence Gomme refers to this offering in a chapter on ethnic elements in custom and ritual, in which he compares certain ceremonies prevalent in India and Greece and other parts of Europe and argues from the strong line of parallel between the Indian ceremonies and those still observed in Europe as survivals of a forgotten and unrecognised cult that ceremonies which are demonstrably non-Aryan in India, even in the presence of Aryan people, must in original have been non-Aryan in Europe, though the race from whom they have descended is not at present identified by ethnologists. One of the customs selected by him for comparison is the Whitsuntide custom in the parish of King’s Teignton, Devonshire. Here is a description of that custom:—

“A lamb is drawn about the parish on Whitsun Monday in a cart covered with garlands of lilac, laburnum, and other flowers, when persons are requested to give something towards the animal and attendant expenses; on Tuesday it is then killed and roasted whole in the middle of the village. The lamb is then sold in slices to the poor at a cheap rate.”

The origin of the custom is forgotten, but a tradition, supposed to trace back to heathen days, is to this effect: The village suffered from a dearth of water, when the inhabitants were advised by their priests to pray to the gods for water; whereupon the water sprang up spontaneously in a meadow about a third of a mile above the river, in an estate now called Rydon, amply sufficient to supply the wants of the place, and at present adequate, even in a dry summer, to work three mills. A lamb, it is said, has ever since that time been sacrificed as a votive thank-offering at Whitsuntide in the manner above mentioned.

The same ceremony, in a more primitive form, was observed at the village of Holne. On May-morning, before daybreak, the young men of the village used to assemble at a granite pillar in the centre of a field called the Ploy Field. They then proceeded to the moor, where they selected a ram lamb, and after running it down brought it in triumph to the Ploy Field, fastened it to the pillar, cut its throat, and then roasted it whole, skin, wool, etc. At Midday a struggle took place, at the risk of cut hands, for a slice, it being supposed to confer luck for the ensuing year on the fortunate devourer. As an act of gallantry the young men sometimes fought their way through the crowd to get a slice for the chosen amongst the young women, all of whom, in their best dresses, attended the Ram Feast as it was called.

In one of his odes Horace made a solemn promise that he would make a present of a very fine kid, some sweet wine and flowers to a noble fountain in his own Sabine Villa. We have seen that even to-day the Parsis offer goats and fowl to the spirits of the well. The process of reasoning is the same. The Gujarati Hindu, however, shrinks from such slaughter. Nevertheless, the gods have to be propitiated. He therefore offers acceptable substitutes for animal victims, such as cocoanuts and red lead. Betelnuts, sugar and milk and ghee likewise keep the spirits in good humour.

Offerings of coins to the well-spirits are common in the East as in the West. What can be the explanation? Is the coin offered as a price for the boon that one expects to derive from the healing powers of the wells? That at any rate is the idea prompting the man bitten by a rabid dog when he goes to a well inhabited by a Vâchharo, with two earthen cups filled with milk and with a pice in each, which he empties into the water. But quite a different and curious explanation of the offering is found in the Folklore Notes of Gujarat. “It is a belief among Hindus,” says one of the informants of the late Mr. Jackson, “that to give alms in secret confers a great boon on the donor. Some of the orthodox people, therefore, throw pice into wells, considering it to be a kind of secret charity.”

CHAPTER XVII.
RAG WELLS AND PIN WELLS.

The most singular feature of well-worship in Europe is the fantastic custom of offering rags at sacred wells, also pins and buttons, rusty nails and needles, and even shells and pebbles. Rag wells and pin wells abound in Great Britain and Ireland. Many references to these are found in the works of European folklorists. Sir Laurence Gomme has skilfully distributed them geographically and we may adopt his analysis.[55] In the middle and southern countries of England these practices have not survived, but in northern England one comes across several pin-wells. At Sefton in Lancashire it was customary for passers-by to drop into St. Helen’s well a new pin for good luck or to secure the fulfilment of an expressed wish and by the turning of the pin-point to the north or to any other point of the compass conclusions were drawn as to the fidelity of lovers, date of marriage and other love matters. At Brindle is a well dedicated to St. Ellin, where on Patron day pins are thrown into the water. Such pin-wells also existed at Jarrow and Wooler in Northumberland, at Breyton Minchmore, Koyingham, and Mount Grace in Yorkshire.

At Great Cotes and Winterton in Lincolnshire, Newcastle and Benton in Northumberland, Newton Kyme, Thorp Arch, and Gargrave in Yorkshire, pieces of rag, cloth, or ribbon take the place of the pins, and are tied to bushes adjoining the wells, while near Newton, at the foot of Roseberry Topping, the shirt or shift of the devotee was thrown into the well, and according as it floated or sank so would the sickness leave or be fatal, while as an offering to the saint a rag of the shirt is torn off and left hanging on the briars thereabouts.

Pin wells in Wales are met with at Rhosgoch in Montgomeryshire, St. Cynhafal’s Well in Denbighshire, St. Barruc’s Well on Barry Island, near Cardiff, Ffynon Gwynwy spring in Carnarvonshire, and a well near Penrhos. Reference has already been made to the cursing well of St. Aelian. Anyone who wished to inflict a curse upon an enemy resorted to the priestess of the well and got the name of the person proposed to be cursed registered in a book kept for the purpose. A pin was then dropped into the well in the name of the victim, and the curse was complete. Pin-wells and rag-wells are both represented in Cornwall as, for instance, at Pelynt, St. Austel and St. Roche, where pins are offered, and at Madron Well, where both pins and rags are offered.

In Ireland the offering of rags is a universal custom. Among examples of rag-wells may be mentioned Ardclinis, County Antrim; Errigall-Keroge, County Tyrone; Dungiven, St. Bartholomew’s Well at Pilltown, County Waterford; and St. Brigid’s Well at Cliffony, County Sligo.

About fifty years after the Reformation it was noted that the wells of Scotland were all “tapestried about with old rags.” The best examples lasting to within modern times are to be found in the islands round the coast and in the northern shires, particularly in Banff, Aberdeen, Perth, Ross, and Caithness. At Kilmuir, in the Isle of Skye, at Loch Hiant, or Siant, there was “a shelf made in the wall of a contiguous enclosure” for placing thereon “the offerings of small rags, pins, and coloured threads to the divinity of the place.” At St. Mourie’s Well, on Malruba Isle, a rag was left on the bushes, nails stuck into an oak tree, or sometimes a copper coin driven in. At Toubirmore Well, in Gigha Isle, devotees were accustomed to leave “a piece of money, a needle, pin, or one of the prettiest variegated stones they could find,” and at Tonbir Well, in Jura, they left “an offering of some small token, such as a pin, needle, farthing or the like.”

In Banffshire, at Montblairie, “many still alive remember to have seen the impending boughs adorned with rags of linen and woollen garments, and the well enriched with farthings and bodles, the offerings of those who came from afar to the fountain.” At Keith the well is near a stone circle, and some offering was always left by the devotees. In Aberdeenshire, at Frazerburgh, “the superstitious practice of leaving some small trifle” existed. In Perthshire at St. Fillan’s Well, Comrie, the patients leave behind “some rags of linen or woollen cloth.” In Caithness, at Dunnat, they throw a piece of money into the water, and at Wick they leave a piece of bread and cheese and a silver coin, which they alleged disappeared in some mysterious way. In Ross and Cromarty, at Alness, “pieces of coloured cloth were left as offerings”; at Cragnick an offering of a rag was suspended from a bramble bush overhanging the well; at Fodderty the devotees “always left on a neighbouring bush or tree a bit of coloured cloth or thread as a relic”; and at Kiltearn shreds of clothing were hung on the surrounding trees. In Sutherlandshire, at Farr and at Loth, a coin was thrown into the well. In Dumfriesshire, at Penpont, a part of the dress was left as an offering, and many pieces have been seen “floating on the lake or scattered round the banks.” In Kirkcudbrightshire at Buittle, “either money or clothes” was left, and in Renfrewshire, at Houston, “pieces of cloth were left as a present or offering to the saint on the bushes.”

Macaulay in his History of St. Kilda, speaking of a consecrated well in that island called Tobirnimbuadh, or the spring of divers virtues, says: “Near the fountain stood an altar, on which the distressed votaries laid down their oblations. Before they could touch sacred water with any prospect of success, it was their constant practice to address the Genius of the place with supplication and prayers. No one approached him with empty hands. But the devotees were abundantly frugal. The offerings presented by them were the poorest acknowledgments that could be made to a superior being, from whom they had either hopes or fears, shells and pebbles, rags of linen or stuffs worn out, pins, needles, or rusty nails, were generally all the tribute that was paid; and sometimes, though rarely enough, copper coins of the smallest value.”[56]

What may be the ideas underlying these singular gifts?

Henderson explains in Folklore that “the country girls imagine that the well is in charge of a fairy or spirit who must be propitiated by some offering, and the pin presents itself as the most ready or convenient, besides having a special suitableness as being made of metal.” Miss Marian Cox in her Introduction to Folklore says that the pins, coins, buttons and other objects found in wells, and generally considered to be offerings, may formerly have been vehicles of the diseases which patients have thought thus to throw off. This suggestion is probably based on the theory put forward by Sir John Rhys in regard to the rag-offerings at sacred wells. He believed that the object of placing these scraps of clothing at the wells was for transferring the disease from the sick person to some one else. The same explanation is vouchsafed in regard to the Indian custom of hoisting flags on trees. But whether or not this explanation is partially true in regard to the rag offerings, it is evidently untenable in regard to the presents of pins and buttons which are unquestionably offerings intended to please the well spirits.

In combating the opinion of Sir John Rhys, Sir Laurence Gomme gives in Folklore as an Historical Science a very significant example. “Among other items,” says he, “I have come across an account of an Irish station, as it is called, at a sacred well, the details of which fully bear out my view as to the nature of the rags deposited at the shrine being offerings to the local deity. One of the devotees, in true Irish fashion, made his offering accompanied by the following words:—‘To St. Columbkill—I offer up this button, a bit o’ the waistband o’ my own breeches, an’ a taste o’ my wife’s petticoat, in remimbrance of us havin’ made this holy station; an’ may they rise up in glory to prove it for us in the last day.’”

“I shall not attempt,” says the author, “to account for the presence of the usual Irish humour in this, to the devotee, most solemn offering; but I point out the undoubted nature of the offerings and their service in the identification of their owners—a service which implies their power to bear witness in spirit-land to the pilgrimage of those who deposited them during lifetime at the sacred well.” Mr. Eden Phillpots in one of his Cornish stories, Lying Prophets, confirms this view. In that story rags are offered. “Just a rag tored off a petticoat or some such thing. They hanged ’em up round about on the thorn bushes, to show as they’d a’done more for the good saint if they’d had the power.”

A few more authorities may be cited. These have been referred to in Knowlson’s Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs. Grose explains the custom in the following extract:—

There is an echo of this theory in the Statistical Account of Scotland: “A spring in the Moss of Melshach, of the chalybeats kind, is still in reputation among the common people. Its sanative qualities extend even to brutes. As this spring probably obtained vogue at first in days of ignorance and superstition, it would appear that it became customary to leave at the well part of the clothes of the sick and diseased and harness of the cattle as an offering of gratitude to the divinity who bestowed healing virtues on its waters. And now, even though the superstitious principle no longer exists, the accustomed offerings are still presented.”

Here is one more extract from the Statistical Account of Scotland:—

Professor Rhys himself suggests that a distinction is to be drawn between the rags hung on trees or near a well and the pins, which are so commonly thrown into the water itself. In his opinion only the rags were meant to be vehicles of disease. “If this opinion were correct”, says Hartland, “one would expect to find both ceremonies performed by the same patient at the same well; he would throw in the pin and also place the rag on the bush, or wherever its proper place might be. The performance of both ceremonies, is, however, I think, exceptional. Where the pin or button is dropped into the well, the patient does not trouble about the rag, and vice versa.” Hartland is therefore inclined to think that the rags stand for entire articles of clothing which used to be deposited at an earlier time and he thinks that on the analogy of the part representing the whole the rags were intended to connect the worshipper with the deity. The reasoning underlying the rag-offerings, then, resolves itself into the following simple syllogism: My shirt or stocking, or a rag to represent it, stands for me; being placed upon a sacred bush or thrust into a sacred well it is in constant contact with divinity; the effluence of divinity, reaching and involving it therefore reaches and involves me.

A curious detail in regard to these rag-offerings is given by Mrs. Evans in reference to the rags tied on the bushes at St. Elian’s well. These rags must be tied with wool. This detail is not mentioned by the various authorities whom we have referred to, and the reason for using wool remains to be explained. We know that with the Hindus as well as with the Parsis the sheep is a sacred animal. The use of woollen clothes is prescribed in certain Hindu rituals and the sacred thread of the Parsis, which he carries round his waist day and night, is made of sheep’s wool. Probably the same idea led to the use of wool in the English custom of hanging up rags. If so, it affords a further ground for concluding that the rag was not a mere vehicle of disease but a grateful offering devoutly presented to the deity of the well or the tree.

Macedonian folklore furnishes further evidence in this behalf. Travellers in Macedonia often see newly-built fountains decorated with cotton or wool threads of many colours. These threads are torn by wayfarers from their dress on beholding the fountain for the first time. “They alight and after having slaked their thirst in the waters of the fountain, leave these offerings as tokens of gratitude to the presiding nymph.”[57]

CHAPTER XVIII.
A MISUNDERSTOOD INDIAN CUSTOM.

In India no one would think of offering to the water-spirits such impure articles as pins and needles and nails, much less “rags tored off shirts and petticoats.” It would be positive defilement of water. Sometimes, however, flags are seen hoisted near holy wells, and European travellers represent them as rag wells corresponding to those with which they are familiar in the west. There is, however, a good deal of difference between the two customs. In the first place these flags are not rags. They are made of new, unused cloth. It is a universal custom in India to put up dhajas or standards near shrines, sepulchres and sacred trees believed to harbour spirits. When there is such a shrine or tree near a well, a flag is hoisted at the spot. But it is done in honour, not of the water-spirit, but of the god or goddess installed in the shrine or of the spirit dwelling in the tree or of the saint buried in the vicinity. I have made personal enquiries and consulted authorities in search of evidence for rag wells in India, but have not come across any single instance. True, Crooke in his Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India, makes the rather sweeping assertion that India supplies numerous examples of the custom of hanging up rags on trees or near sacred wells. Mention is also made in the Folklore Notes of Gujarat of flags that are sometimes hoisted near holy wells “in honour of the water-goddess Jaldevki.” European folklorists are thereby led to docket these as illustrations of the prevalence of the cult of rag wells in India. But there is no evidence to show that rags are offered to wells. These authors are often misled by the incomplete data that they receive from their informants and in the absence of full particulars any such incident as a flag hoisted near a well is put forward as an example indicating the prevalence of a custom altogether foreign to the conceptions and even repugnant to the sentiments of the Indian population.

No one mentions flags, all the folklorists talk of rags. Perhaps, there is an excuse for it, as the new flags, no doubt, get soiled in course of time. But, as pointed out above, it should not have been overlooked that a regular standard is invariably put up in honour of the presiding deity. It has no suggestion for disease-transference. All deities, whatever their specific virtues, get this honour without exception. The question, then, for consideration is, does the same idea of reverence account for the flags hoisted on trees? There is no doubt that the primary idea was the same, although in process of time superstitious people came to think that that was an offering demanded by the spirits living in the trees and that if the offering was not given, calamities would befall, particularly illness. For instance, one of these spirits is known by the name of Chitharia or Ragged Pir. He is supposed to dwell in such trees as the Khijado, i.e., Shami (Prosopis Spicigera) and Bawal, i.e., Babhul (Acacia Arabica). It is a common belief that if a mother fails to offer a flag to such a holy tree while passing by it, her children’s health and life are jeopardised. According to another belief, travellers, in order to accomplish their journey safely, offer flags to the trees reputed to be the dwelling-places of spirits, if they happen to come across them during the journey.

In the Folklore Notes of Gujarat several interesting examples of these beliefs and practices have been given and these may be transcribed here in the compiler’s own words:—

“Some believe that both male and female spirits reside in the Khijado, Bāval and Kerado trees and throw rags over them with the object of preventing passers-by from cutting or removing the trees. Some pile stones round their stems and draw tridents over them with red lead and oil. If superstitious people come across such trees, they throw pieces of stones on the piles, believing them to be holy places, and think that by doing so they attain the merit of building a temple or shrine. A belief runs that this pile should grow larger and larger day by day, and not be diminished. If the base of such a tree is not marked by a pile of stones, rags only are offered; and if rags are not available, the devotee tears off a piece of his garment, however costly it may be, and dedicates it to the tree.

“Once a child saw its mother offering a rag to such a tree, and asked her the reason of the offering. The mother replied that her brother, that is the child’s maternal uncle, dwelt in the tree. Hence a belief arose that a chithario (ragged) uncle dwells in such trees. Others assert that the chithario pir dwells in such trees, and they propitiate him by offering cocoanuts and burning frankincense before it.

“There is a Khijado tree near Sultanpur which is believed to be the residence of a demon māmo. This demon is propitiated by the offerings of rags.

“Some declare that travellers fix rags of worn-out clothes to the trees mentioned above in order that they may not be attacked by the evil spirits residing in them. Another belief is that the spirits of deceased ancestors residing in such trees get absolution through this form of devotion. It is also believed that a goddess called chitharia devi resides in such trees, and being pleased with these offerings, blesses childless females with children, and cures persons suffering from itch of their disease. There is a further belief that ragged travellers, by offering pieces of their clothes to the Khijado, Bāval or Kerado trees, are blessed in return with good clothes.

“Some believe that Hanumān, the lord of spirits, resides in certain trees. They call him chithario or ragged Hanumān. All passers-by offer rags to the trees inhabited by him. There is such a tree near the station of Shirei. There is a tamarind tree on the road from Tamnagar to Khantalia which is believed to be the residence of chithario Hanumān and receives similar offerings. Another tamarind tree of this description is near Marad and there is a Khijado tree on the road between Kalavad and Vavadi which is similarly treated.

“It is related by some people that in deserts trees are rare and the summer heat is oppressive. To the travellers passing through such deserts the only place of rest is in the shadow of a solitary tree that is to be met occasionally. In order that no harm be done to such trees, some people have given currency to the belief that a spirit called māmo dwells in such trees and expects the offering of a rag and a pice at the hands of every passer-by.

“In some places, the Borādi (jujube,) Pipal, Vad (banyan) and the sweet basil receive offerings of a pice and a betel-nut from travellers, while the Khijado and Bāval are given rags.”

In all these instances we notice the confusion of rags with flags, but they unmistakably establish the point that the idea underlying the offering is that of propitiating the spirit. A few more instances may be cited from Crooke’s Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. “Among the Mirzapur Korwas the Baiga hangs rags on the trees which shade the village shrine, as a charm to bring health and good luck. These rag shrines are to be found all over the country, and are generally known as Chithariya or Chithraiya Bhavani, ‘Our Lady of Tatters.’ So in the Punjab the trees on which rags are hung are named after Lingri Pir or the rag saint. The same custom prevails at various Himalayan shrines and at the Vastra Harana or sacred tree at Bindraban near Mathura which is now invested with a special legend, as commemorating the place where Krishna carried off the clothes of the milkmaids when they were bathing, an incident which constantly appears in both European and Indian folklore. In Berar a heap of stones daubed with red and placed under a tree fluttering with rag represents Chindiya Deo or ‘the Lord of Tatters,’ where, if you present a rag in due season, you may chance to get new clothes.”

Crooke’s authority for this last instance is the Gazetteer, but as indicated above these authorities have all missed the point that the original conception was to honour the tree-spirit and that these flags are hoisted either as a mark of reverence or as a thank-offering for cures from diseases and other boons and further that these are regular flags and not scraps of shirts and petticoats fixed on bushes or hung on trees, as in Europe. During my recent journey from Rawalpindi to Kashmir I saw several trees the boughs of which were decked with flags of white and red cloth. In Baluchistan also I saw a good many trees similarly decked with flags. In each case I found that there was a grave of a saint underneath or close by the tree and that the flags were hoisted in honour of the saint. There was no suggestion of disease-transference, although the villagers admitted that it was customary to offer these flags if, in response to a prayer to the saint or a vow, any ailment was cured. Everywhere the explanation given was the same. The flag was presented to the saint only and solely as a thank-offering for a wish fulfilled.

The cult of rag offering is believed to extend throughout Africa from west to east. Park in his Travels in the Interior of Africa says: “The company advanced as far as a large tree called by the natives Neema Toba. It had a very singular appearance, being covered with innumerable rags or scraps of cloth, which persons travelling across the wilderness had at different times tied to its branches, a custom so generally followed that no one passes it without hanging up something.” Park adds that he also followed the example, and suspended a handsome piece of cloth on one of the boughs. Burton found the custom prevailing in Arabia and Sir William Ouseley saw a tree close to a large monolith covered with rags. Ferrier in his Caravan Journeys says that these rags are fixed on bushes in Persia in the name of Imam Raza. It is believed that the eye of the Imam being always on the top of the mountain, the shreds which are left there by those who hold him in reverence remind him of what he ought to do in their behalf with Muhammad, Ali and the other holy personages, who are able to propitiate the Almighty in their favour. Hannay regarded these rags as charms for disease-transference. In his Travels in Persia he says: “After ten days’ journey we arrived at a caravanserai, where we found nothing but water. I observed a tree with a number of rags tied 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 on the same spot.”

This evidence, however, needs corroboration. Meanwhile, considering how dangerous it is to generalise on the strength of stray statements and observations of foreigners, considering how these statements reveal only half-truths in the case of many Indian customs, we may take this evidence with caution. If, however, what Hannay says is based on the actual practices and beliefs of the Persian Mahomedans, we are led to infer that not only in several places in Europe but also in many parts of Asia the rag came to be regarded as a vehicle of disease, whatever may have been the original ideas underlying the offering. When we have evidence to show that in Europe pins and rags were used at wells for purposes of divination, it is not difficult to conceive the process of reasoning by which these articles came to be regarded as appropriate offerings to the indwelling spirits, no matter how insignificant their intrinsic value. These instruments of divination, having done their duty, must have been consigned to the waters as being the best place for depositing them. Then, probably, they were looked upon as indispensable offerings to the water goblins and then, although the practice of divination disappeared, these articles still came to be regarded as appropriate offerings for the well-spirits, and the rustic mind, ignorant of the genealogy of the custom, interpreted the survival of the ancient usages according to its own conception of sympathetic magic and either looked upon the rag-offering as a charm for disease-transference, or as a connecting link with the deity. This theory of the origin of the custom, which is here put forward with some diffidence, also explains the growth of the two conflicting theories (1) that the rags are vehicles of disease or charms for disease-transference, and (2) that they are simple offerings to propitiate the deity.

We have rambled far in our survey of the cult of rag offerings, because it represents a peculiarly interesting phase of water-worship. Of the rituals practised in the worship of water divinities it is the most rude and primitive. While the ceremonies of well-worship in the west correspond in several details, notably the offerings of flowers and coins, to the rituals with which we are familiar in this country, they contain some distinctive elements, the most remarkable of which is this practice of rag-offerings. We have cited numerous instances to show how common the practice was in Great Britain and Ireland and how it survives even to this day in certain parts, but while it was and still is a general feature of water-worship in those parts, it was and is unknown in India, although some folklorists have erroneously identified it with the entirely different, though seemingly analogous, practice of hoisting flags or dhajas at shrines and sacred trees. Perhaps the best explanation for the practice of rag-offering is that it may be a degenerate form of flag-offering.

CHAPTER XIX.
ANIMAL DEITIES OF WATER.

The western practices and customs we have noticed show that the cult of water-worship prevailed and survived throughout the west in a primitive form, evidently in a coarser form than in the east. The most remarkable feature of this rude worship is the belief in the presence of animals or fish as the presiding spirits or tutelary deities of the wells and it affords a very curious illustration of the savagery of those days in Europe. Originally, the worship was established for one great divinity of water. Later, however, both in the east and in the west, the inhabitants of different places came to believe in different spirits of water. Thus did the wells and rivers and pools and tanks of India come to be peopled by fairies and genii, goblins and witches, sayyids and saints. All these are represented in the guardian spirits of the wells and rivers and pools and tanks on the Continent. But our western friends go a step further and fill these wells with numerous animal gods which are very imperfectly represented in the waters of the east.

We find a general belief amongst the Hindus that the nether regions are inhabited by water snakes called Nags. Such were the Kaliya Nag, who resided at the bottom of the Jumna and attacked the infant Krishna by whom he was driven from that place, also the Serpent King of Nepal, Karkotaka, who dwelt in the lake Nagarasa when the divine lotus of Adi Buddha floated on its surface. It is believed that a pool at the temple or Treyugi Narayana in Garhwal is full of snakes of a yellow colour which emerge from water to be worshipped on the Nagpanchami day. Another belief equates the Nags with a species of semi-divine beings, half men and half serpents, who possess magnificent palaces under water. The Puranas are full of traditions relating to princes who visited these palaces in watery regions and brought back beautiful Nagkanyas, or daughters of Nags, therefrom. For instance, Arjuna married a Nagkanya named Ulupi when he was living in exile with his brothers.

No other animal water-gods are found in Hindu mythology. In the west, however, the guardian spirits of pools and wells are frogs and trouts and worms and flies. At the well on the Devil’s Causeway, between Ruckley and the Acton, the devil and his imps appear in the form of frogs; three frogs are always seen together, and these are the imps; the largest frog, representing the devil, appearing but seldom. The Fount of Tober Kieran, near Kells, County Meath, in Ireland, rises in a diminutive rough-sided basin of limestone of natural formation and evidently untouched by a tool. In the water are a brace of miraculous trout “which, according to tradition, have occupied their narrow prison from time immemorial. They are said never in the memory of man to have altered in size, and it is said of them that their appearance is ever the same.”

In Galway there is a deep depression in the limestone called “Pigeon Hole,” and the sacred rivulet running at the base of the chasm is believed to contain a pair of enchanted trout, one of which is said to have been captured some time ago by a trooper and cooked, but upon the approach of cold steel “the creature at once changed into a beautiful woman,” and was returned to the stream. The well at Tullaghan, County Sligo, also harbours a brace of miraculous trout, not always visible to ordinary eyes. Similarly, at Bally Morereigh, in Dingle, County Kerry, is a sacred well called Tober Monachan, where a salmon and eel appear to those devotees whom the guardian spirits of the well wish to favour. In Scotland at Kilbride in Skye was a well with one trout. “The natives are very tender of it,” says Martin, “and though they often chance to catch it in their wooden pails, they are very careful to preserve it from being destroyed.” In the well at Kilmore, in Lorn, were two fishes, black in colour, never augmenting in size or number nor exhibiting any alteration of colour, and the inhabitants of the place “doe call the saide fishes Easg Saint, that is to say, holie fishes.”

Sir Laurence Gomme records other examples of a still more interesting nature. If, says Dalyell, a certain worm in a medicinal spring on the top of the hill in the parish of Strathdon were found alive, it augured the recovery of a patient, and in a well of Ardnacloich, in Appin, the patient, “if he bee to dye shall find a dead worme therein or a quick one, if health bee to follow.” These, there can be little doubt, are the former deities of the spring thus reduced in status.

Mention has already been made of the presiding genius of the well of St. Michael near the Church of Kirkmichael, in Banffshire, who assumes the semblance of a fly, and who is immortal and always present in the water. “To the eye of ignorance,” says the local account, “he might sometimes appear dead, but it was only a transmigration into a similar form, which made little alteration to the real identity.” “It seems impossible,” remarks Sir Laurence Gomme, “to mistake this as an almost perfect example where the guardian deity of the sacred spring is represented in animal form. More perfect than any other example to be met with in Britain and its isles is this singular description of the traditional peasant belief, it lifts the whole evidence as to the identification of wells in Britain as the shrine of ancient local deities into close parallel with savage ideas and thought.” Professor Robertson Smith points out that the divine life of the waters is believed to reside in the sacred fish that inhabits them, and he gives numerous examples analogous to the Scottish and Irish, but whether represented by fish, or frog, or worm, or fly, in all their various forms, the point of the legends is that the sacred source is either inhabited by a demoniac being or imbued with demoniac life.

Here we may bring to a close our analysis of water-worship in East and West. Enough evidence has been adduced to establish the identity of ideas and usages connected with the worship of water in India with those prevailing in Europe, particularly in the British Isles. Of all the great objects of nature water impressed people the most. It came to be worshipped everywhere. The foundation of the cult everywhere was the same. The forms and rituals were, therefore, part and parcel of the same common cult. There is, however, a difference in the degree in which they have survived in different places according to the stage of culture attained by the inhabitants of the place. These variations enable us to compare the stages of culture of different communities at different intervals, stages of culture which are practically lost to history, but to which folklore affords many a clue. In the legendary lore and traditional materials known as folklore there are precious fragments of information from which can be reared enduring monuments of history if these are carefully handled and scientifically sifted. The value, therefore, of these seemingly unmeaning beliefs and customs to the student of ethnology and folklore cannot be over-estimated, and this, if nothing else, may be pleaded in justification of the author’s attempt to revive the dying fame of the miraculous pools and rivers and their wonder-working denizens.