Subject of WELLS continued-Wells worshipped-River Ganges-Saered well at Benares-Oaths taken at Wells-Tradition of the Rabbins-Altars erected near them-Invoked-Ceremonies with regard to water in Egypt, Greece, Peru, Mexico, Rome, and Judea---Temples erected over wells---The fountainof Apollo---Well Zem Zem---Prophet Joel---Temple of Isis---Mahommedan Mosques---Hindoo temples ---Woden's well---Wells in Chinese temples---Pliny---Celts --Gauls---Modern superstitions with regard to water and wells---Hindoos---Algerines---Nineveh---Greeks---Tombs of saints near wells---Superstitions of the Persians---Anglo Saxons---Hindoos---Scotch---English---St. Genevieve's well---St. Winifred's well---House and well 'warming.' In the early ages water was reverenced as the substance of which all things in the universe were supposed to be made, and the vivifying principle that animated the whole; hence, rivers, fountains, and wells, were worshipped and religious feasts and ceremonies instituted in honor of them, or of the spirits which were believed to preside over them. Almost all nations retain relics of this superstition, while in some it is practised to a lamentable extent. Asia exhibits the humiliating spectacle of millions of her people degraded by it, as in former ages. Shoals of pilgrims are constantly in motion over all Hindoston, on their way to the sacred Ganges;' their tracks stained with the blood and covered with the bones of thousands that perish on the road. With these people, it is deemed a virtue even to think of this river; while to bathe in its waters washes away all sin, and to expire on its brink, or be suffocated in it, is the climax of human felicity. The holy WELL in the city of Benares is visited by devotees from all parts of India; to it they offer rice, &c. as to their idols. From this sacred character of water, it very early became a custom, in order to render obligations inviolable, to take oaths, conclude treaties, make bargains, &c. at wells. We learn that when Jacob was on his way to Egypt, he came to the "well of the oath," and offered sacrifices to God. Josephus, Ant. ii, 7. At the same well, his grandfather Abraham concluded a treaty with Abimelech, which was accompanied with ceremonies and oaths. Gen. xxi. At the celebrated Puteal Libonis, at Rome, oaths were publicly administered every morning; a representation of this well is on the reverse of a medal of Libo. Encyc. Ant. 412. It was believed that the "oaths of the Gods" was also by water. Univer. His. Vol. iv, 17. The Rabbins have a tradition that their kings were always anointed by the side of a fountain. Solomon was carried by order of David to the fountain of Gihon,' and there proclaimed king. Joseph. Ant. vii, 14. The ancient Cuthites, says Mr. Bryant, and the Persians after them, had a great veneration for fountains and streams. ALTARS were erected in the vicinity of wells and fountains, and religious ceremonies performed around them. Thus Ulysses: Beside a fountain's sacred brink, we raised Iliad ii, 368. "Wherever a spring rises, or a river flows," says Seneca, "there we should build altars and offer sacrifices," and a thousand years before Seneca lived, the author of the 68th Psalm spoke of worshipping God from the "fountains of Israel." The Syracusans held great festivals every 333 34 Religious Customs. [Book I. year at the fountains of Arethusa, and they sacrificed black bulls to Pluto at the fountain of Cyane. Wells were sometimes dedicated to particular deities, as the oracular fountain mentioned by Pausanias, near the sea at Patra, which still remains nearly as he described it; and having been rededicated to a christian saint, "is still a sacred WELL." Divination by water, was practised at this well. A mirror was suspended by a thread, having its polished surface upwards, and while floating on the water, presages were drawn from the images reflected. Polynices, in Edipus Coloneus, swears "by our native fountains and our kindred gods." Antigone, when about to be sacrificed, appeals to the "fountains of Dirce, and the grove of Thebe." Ajax before he slew himself, called on the sun, the soil of Salamis, and "ye fountains and rivers here." Trag. of Sophocles lit. trans. 1837. "At Peneus' fount Aristeus stood and bowed with woe, Georgics L. iv, 365. The fountain of Aponeus, (now Albano) the birth place of Livy, was an oracular one. That of Pirene at Corinth, was sacred to the muses. Eneas invoked "living fountains" among other Ethereal Gods." And old Latinus 66 Sought the shades renowned for prophecy, En. vii, 124. Cicero says, the Roman priests and augurs, in their prayers, called on the names of rivers, brooks, and springs. Vessels of water were carried by the Egyptian priests in their sacred processions, to denote the great blessings derived from it, and that it was the beginning of all things. Vitruvius says they were accustomed to place a vase of it in their temples with great devotion, and prostrating themselves on the earth, returned thanks to the divine goodness for its protection. Book viii, Proem. In the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries, those who entered the temple, washed their hands in holy water, and on the ninth and last day of the festival, vessels of water were offered with great ceremonies, and accompanied with mystical expressions to the Gods. Those who were initiated were prohibited from ever sitting on the cover of a well. Sojourners among the Greeks carried in the religious processions, small vessels formed in the shape of boats; and their daughters water pots with umbrellas. Rob. Ant. Greece. Plutarch says, "fishes were not eaten of old, from reverence of springs." Among the ancient Peruvians, certain Indians were appointed to sacrifice "to fountains, springs, and rivers." Pur. Pil. 1076. Holy water was placed near the altars of the Mexicans. Ibid, 987. Tlaloc was their God of water; on fulfilling particular vows they bathed in the sacred pond Tezcapan. The water of the fountain Toxpalatl was drank only at the most solemn feasts: no one was allowed to taste it at any other time. Clavigero, Lon. 1786, vol. i, 251 and 265. The Fontinalia of the Romans, were religious festivals, held in October, in honor of the Nymphs of wells and fountains; part of the ceremonies consisted in throwing nosegays into fountains, and decorating the curbs of wells with wreaths of flowers. The Jews had a religious festival in connection with water, the origin of which is not clearly ascertained. It was kept on the last day of the feast of tabernacles, when they drew water with great ceremony from the pool of Siloah and conveyed it to the temple. It is supposed, the Sa Uni. Hist. i, 607. 66 35 vior alludes to this practice, when on the last day, that great day of the feast, he stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters." John, vii, 37. One of the five solemn festivals of the people of Pegu, is the feast of water,' during which, the king, nobles and all the people throw water upon one another.' Ovington's Voy. to Surat. 1689. 597. The superstitious veneration for wells, induced the ancients to erect temples near, and sometimes over them; as the fountain of Apollo, near the temple of Jupiter Ammon; the well Zemzem in the temple of Mecca, &c. In accordance with this prevailing custom, we find the prophet Joel speaks of a fountain which should come forth out of the house of the Lord, and water the valley. iii, 18. And when Jeroboam built a temple, that the ten tribes might not be obliged to go to Jerusalem to worship, and there be seduced from him, Josephus tells us, that he built it by the fountains of the lesser Jordan. Antiq. viii, cap. 8. In the temple of Isis, at Pompeii, the 'sacred well' has been found. Pompeii, i, 277, 279. The ancient custom of enclosing wells in religious edifices was adopted by both Christians and Mahommedans. Among the latter it is still continued, and it is not altogether abandoned by the former. "This afternoon," says Fryer, speaking of one of the mosques in India, "their sanctum sanctorum was open, the priest entering in barefoot, and prostrating himself on one of the mats spread on the floor, whither I must not have gone, could his authority have kept me out. The walls were white and clean but plain, only the commandments wrote in Arabic at the west end, were hung over a table in an arched place, where the priest expounds, on an ascent of seven steps, railed at top with stone very handsomely. Underneath are fine cool vaults, and stone stairs to descend to a deep tank." As it was formerly death to a christian who entered a mosque, we shall add a more recent instance. In 1831, Mr. St. John disguised himself, like Burckhardt, in the costume of a native, and visited the mosques of Cairo. In that of Sultan Hassan, he observes, "ascending a long flight of steps, and passing under a magnificent doorway, we entered the vestibule, and proceeded towards the most sacred portion of the edifice, where, on stepping over a small railing, it was necessary to take off our babooshes, or red Turkish shoes. Here we beheld a spacious square court, paved with marble of various colors, fancifully arranged, with a beautiful octagonal marble fountain in the centre." Egypt and Mohammed Ali, ii, 338. It is the same in Persia. Tavern. Trav. Lon. 1678. 29. The temples of India says Sonnerat, have a sacred tank, deified by the Brahmins. The figures of gods are sometimes thrown into a tank or well.' Voy. i, 111, 132. In old times, churches were removed from other buildings, and were surrounded with courts, in the centre of which there were fountains, where people washed before going to prayers. Moreri Dic. In one of the old churches at Upsal, is an ancient well, that had formerly been famous for its miraculous cures.' Woden's well is still shown in the same city. It was in the vicinity of the old temple of that great northern deity. De la Mortraye's Trav. ii, 262. Van Braam noticed a well in one of the large temples of China. Journ. ii, 224. 'Sacred springs,' are mentioned by Juvenal. 3 Sat. 30. Pliny speaks of fountains and wells of water as very 'wholesome and proper for the cure of many diseases;' to which, he says, there is ascribed some divine power, insomuch that they give names to sundry gods and goddesses, xxxi, 2. The Celts venerated lakes, rivers, and fountains, into which they threw gold. 36 Superstitions of the Anglo Saxons. [Book I. The Britons and Picts did the same. Scot. Gael, 258. Mezeray, in his History of France, when speaking of the church in the third and fourth centuries, remarks, Hitherto very few of the French had received the light of the gospel; they yet adored trees, fountains, serpents, and birds.' i, 4. In the eighth century, the council of Soissons condemned a heretic, who built oratories and set up crosses near fountains, &c. Ib. 113. Ancient superstitions with regard to water are still practised more or less over a great part of the world. At the first new moon in October, the Hindoos hold a great celebration to their Deities. "The next moon, their women flock to the sacred wells." Fryer, 110. Many of the ceremonies performed in old times by women in honor of wells and fountains, are yet practised in some of the Grecian islands. There the females still dance round the wells, the ancient Callichorus, accompanied with songs in honor of Ceres. Dr. Clarke. 'I have just returned this morning," (says Mr. Campbell in his Letters from the South, Phila. Ed. 1836, 102,) “from witnessing a superstitious ceremony, which, though unwarranted by the Koran, is practised by all Mahometans here, [Algiers] black, brown, and white, nay by the Jews also. It consists in sacrificing the life of some eatable animal to one of the devils who inhabit certain fountains near Algiers. The victims were fowls, they were dipped in the sacred sea, as Homer calls it, after which the high priest took them to a neighboring fountain, and having waved his knife thrice around the head of an old woman, who sat squatting beside it, cut their throats," &c. The custom was probably a common one in ancient Nineveh; for once a year the peasants assemble and sacrifice a sheep at Thisbe's well, with music and other festivities. The Greeks are so much attached to grottoes and wells, that "there is scarcely one in all Greece and the islands, which is not consecrated to the Virgin, who seems to have succeeded the ancient nymphs in the guardianship of these places." The supposed sanctity of wells also led to the custom of interring the bodies of saints or holy persons near them; thus in all parts of Egypt, the tombs of saints are found in the vicinity of those places, "where the wandering dervishes stop to pray, and less pious travelers to quench their thirst." Some, says Fryer, are buried with" their heels upwards, like Diogenes." Worship of wells, like many other superstitions of Pagan origin, was early incorporated with the ceremonies of the christian church, and carried to an idolatrous excess. A schism took place in Persia among the Armenians, in the tenth century; one party was accused of 'despising the holy well of Vagarsciebat.' In Europe it was at one time universal. In England, in the reigns of Canute and Edgar, edicts were issued prohibiting well worship. When Hereward the Saxon hero, held the marshes of Ely against the Norman conqueror, he said he heard his hostess conversing with a witch at midnight! he arose silently from his bed, and followed them into the garden, to a 'fountain of water,' and there he heard them holding converse with the spirit of the fountain.' From a collection of Anglo Saxon remains, the following example is taken. "If any one observe lots or divinations, or keep his wake, [watch] at any wells, or at any other created things, except at God's church, let him fast three years; the first one on bread and water," &c. In a Saxon homily against witchcraft and magic, in the library of the University of Cambridge, it is said, some men are so blind, that they bring their offerings to immovable rocks, and also to trees and to wells, as witches do teach." The Hindoos still wor 66 b Rich's Nar. of a Residence in Koordistan. ii, 42. Foreign Quarterly. July, 1838. Chap. 6.] Depth of Wells. 37 ship stones, trees, and water, and make offerings to them. In a manuscript written in the early part of the fifteenth century, there is a humorous song, in which there is an allusion to this superstition. It begins thus: 'The last tyme I the wel woke Sir John caght me with a croke, He made me swere be bel and boke Even so late as the seventeenth century, people in Scotland were in the habit of visiting wells, at which they performed numerous acts of superstition. Shaw, in his History of the Province of Moray, says that 'heathen customs were much practised among the people,' and among them, he instances their performing pilgrimages to wells,' and 'building chapels to fountains. At the present time in some parts of England, remains of well worship are preserved, in the custom of performing annual processions to them, decorating them with wreaths and chaplets of flowers, singing of hymns, and even reading a portion of the gospel as part of the ceremonies. These same customs gave rise to the numerous holy wells, which formerly abounded throughout the old world, and the memory of many of which is still preserved in names of towns. In the church of Nanterre, near Paris, the birth place of Saint Genevieve, is a well, by the water of which, this patroness of the Parisians miraculously restored her blind mother and many others to sight! Breval's Eu. 307. Saint Winifred's well in Flintshire, Eng. from its sacred character gave name to the town of Holywell. Mr. Pennant says, the custom of visiting this well in pilgrimage, and offering up devotions there, was not in his time entirely laid aside: "in the summer, a few are to be seen in the water, in deep devotion up to their chin for hours, sending up their prayers, or performing a number of evolutions round the polygonal well." Even so late as 1804, a Roman catholic bishop of Wolverhampton, took much pains to persuade the world, that an ignorant proselyte of his, named Winifred White was miraculously cured at this well of various chronic diseases! The custom of house-warming' is very ancient; the same ceremonies, were formerly performed on the completion of new wells. CHAPTER VI. Wells continued: Depth of ancient wells-In Hindostan-Well of Tyre--Carthagenian wells--Wells in Greece, Herculaneum and Pompeii-Wells without curbs-Ancient laws to prevent accidents from persons and animals falling into them-Sagacity and revenge of an elephant-Hylas-Archelaus of Macedon-Thracian soldier and a lady at Thebes-Wooden covers-Wells in Judea-Reasons for not placing curbs round wells-Scythians-Arabs-Aquilius-Abraham-Hezekiah-David-Mardonius-Moses and the people of Edom-Burckhardt in Petra-Woman of Bahurim-Persian tradition— Ali, the fourth Caliph-Covering wells with large stones-Mahommedan tradition-Themistocles-Edicts of Greek emperors-Well at Heliopolis-Juvenal-Roman and Grecian curbs of marble-Capitals of ancient columns converted into curbs for wells. A knowledge of the depth and other circumstances, relating to some ancient wells, is necessary to a due investigation of the various methods of raising water from them. We cannot indeed form a correct judgment of the latter, without some acquaintance with the former. a Ward's Hindoos, 342, 352. b Hone's Every Day Book, ii, 636, 685. Fosbroke, 684. |