“St. Keyne,†quoth the Cornish-man, “many a timeDrank of this crystal Well,And before the Angel summon’d her,She laid on the water a spell.“If the Husband of this gifted WellShall drink before his Wife,A happy man thenceforth is he,For he shall be Master for life.“But if the Wife should drink of it first,God help the husband then!â€The Stranger stoopt to the Well of St. Keyne,And drank of the water again.“You drank of the Well I warrant betimes?â€He to the Cornish-man said:But the Cornish-man smiled as the Stranger spake,And sheepishly shook his head.“I hasten’d as soon as the wedding was done,And left my Wife in the porch;But i’ faith she had been wiser than me,For she took a bottle to Church.â€
“St. Keyne,†quoth the Cornish-man, “many a timeDrank of this crystal Well,And before the Angel summon’d her,She laid on the water a spell.“If the Husband of this gifted WellShall drink before his Wife,A happy man thenceforth is he,For he shall be Master for life.“But if the Wife should drink of it first,God help the husband then!â€The Stranger stoopt to the Well of St. Keyne,And drank of the water again.“You drank of the Well I warrant betimes?â€He to the Cornish-man said:But the Cornish-man smiled as the Stranger spake,And sheepishly shook his head.“I hasten’d as soon as the wedding was done,And left my Wife in the porch;But i’ faith she had been wiser than me,For she took a bottle to Church.â€
“St. Keyne,†quoth the Cornish-man, “many a timeDrank of this crystal Well,And before the Angel summon’d her,She laid on the water a spell.
“St. Keyne,†quoth the Cornish-man, “many a time
Drank of this crystal Well,
And before the Angel summon’d her,
She laid on the water a spell.
“If the Husband of this gifted WellShall drink before his Wife,A happy man thenceforth is he,For he shall be Master for life.
“If the Husband of this gifted Well
Shall drink before his Wife,
A happy man thenceforth is he,
For he shall be Master for life.
“But if the Wife should drink of it first,God help the husband then!â€The Stranger stoopt to the Well of St. Keyne,And drank of the water again.“You drank of the Well I warrant betimes?â€He to the Cornish-man said:But the Cornish-man smiled as the Stranger spake,And sheepishly shook his head.
“But if the Wife should drink of it first,
God help the husband then!â€
The Stranger stoopt to the Well of St. Keyne,
And drank of the water again.
“You drank of the Well I warrant betimes?â€
He to the Cornish-man said:
But the Cornish-man smiled as the Stranger spake,
And sheepishly shook his head.
“I hasten’d as soon as the wedding was done,And left my Wife in the porch;But i’ faith she had been wiser than me,For she took a bottle to Church.â€
“I hasten’d as soon as the wedding was done,
And left my Wife in the porch;
But i’ faith she had been wiser than me,
For she took a bottle to Church.â€
At the foot of Carn Brea Hill is a little well dedicated to St. Eunius. To be baptised in the water drawn from this is a sure safeguard against death by hanging.
Of the Rin Mochan pool the Brahmins say that any one who bathes there becomes free from debt.
Strange traditions are not wanting, says Mr. Colin Bennett,[38]to account for the wonderful state in which these wells are preserved. It is impossible to remove the stones of the well of St. Cleer, which is situated near Liskeard. True, they may be carted away at daytime, but they all return at night and deposit themselves in heaps on the site from which they were taken. Similar stories are related of the marvellous powers of the basin which catches the water as it issues from the spring at St. Nun’e Well, Pelynt, near Looe and of the Bisland Holy Well the ground surrounding which can never be broken for tillage on penalty of disaster to the family of the person attempting to do so.
So far we have met beneficent spirits of the divine sea and blessed springs and wells. Let us not forget that there are also maleficent deities and mischievous water-goblins infesting ill-omened streams and wells. In India where the lives and fortunes of cattle and people alike hang on the precarious seasonal rainfall, the water-spirits are as a rule regarded as friendly dispensers of life and fertility. Even the sea-gods are on the whole beneficent beings. TheDarya-Pirsof the Luvanas (merchants) and Kharvas (sailors) are devoid of mischief and are regarded as patron saints. Elsewhere, however, the perils of the deep and rapid rivers and treacherous pools gave the water-spirits a bad name and their fury emphasized the need for propitiating them with sacrifices. Thus it comes to pass that western folklore abounds in blood-thirsty water-demons who are very often conceived as hideous serpents or dragons. But, as we have already noticed, people of India also have their mischievous water-sprites, theMâtâsandShankhinieswho haunt wayside wells and either drown or enterthe persons of those who go near their wells. These ghosts and goblins—bhutsandprets—are known asJalachar,i.e., living in water, as contrasted withBhuchar, those hovering on the earth. One has to propitiate these malignant deities and spirits.
It is believed that most of the demons haunting wells and tanks are the spirits of those who have met death by drowning. There are also the spirits of those who die of accidents before the fulfilment of their worldly desires or the souls of the deceased who do not receive the funeralpindaswith the proper obsequies. These fallen souls in theiravagatior degraded condition reside near the scene of their death and molest those who approach the water. There is avavcalledNilkanth vavnear Movaiya, in which aPinjari(a female cottoncarder) is said to have been drowned and to have been turned into a ghost, in which form she occasionally presents herself to the people.
Anothervavin Vadhwan is haunted by a ghost called Mahda, who drowns one human being every third year as a victim. But a male spirit, named Kshetrapal, resides in thekotta(or entrance) of thevav, and saves those who fall near the entrance. Those who fall in any other part are, however, sure to be drowned.
There is in Mirzapur a famous water-hole, known as Barewa. A herdsman was once grazing his buffaloes near the place, when the waters rose in fury and carried him off with his cattle. The drowned buffaloes have now taken the form of a dangerous demon known asBhainsasura, or the buffalo-demon, and he lives there in company with the Naga and the Nagin and none dare fish there until he has propitiated these demons with the offerings of a fowl, eggs and goat.
Until recently the Bengalis believed that a water-spirit in the form of an old hag calledJaté Buddihaunted tanks and ponds and fettered with an invisible chain the feet of persons who approached her territories. Even to this day the name of this witch is taken to frighten naughty children. Another Bengal spirit, calledJakh, was believed to reside in tanks and to guard hidden treasure. Woe to the man who threw covetous eyes on that treasure! The Sion Indians believe in a water-demon called Unk-tahe who, like the Siamese spirit Pnuk, drags underneath the water those who go to bathe in it.[39]
Corresponding to these haunted wells are the water holes in Scotland, known as the “cups of the fairies,†and the Trinity Well in Ireland into which no one can gaze with impunity, and from which the river Bayne once burst forth in pursuit of a lady who had insulted it.
In Indian folklore this wicked class of water-nymphs is known as Apsarás. The village of Mith-Báv in Ratnagiri is a well-known resort of these nymphs and the villagers relate many a thrilling story of persons drowned and carried off by them in the river. Another favourite habitat of these water-spirits is a tank in the village of Hindalem in the same district. Every reservoir of water in Thana is believed to be a habitat of water-nymphs. Some, however, believe that they dwell only in those lakes in which lotuses grow. The images of sevenapsarásare particularly worshipped by the people,viz., Machhi, Kurmi, Karkati, Darduri, Jatupi, Somapa and Makari.
Greek folklore represents these nymphs as tall and slim, clad in white, with flowing golden hair, and divinely beautiful, so much so that the highest compliment that can be paid to a Greek maiden is to compare her in loveliness to a Neraida. Such beauty, however, is fatal to the beholder and many a story is related of people who having exposed themselves to its fascination were bereft of speech or suffered otherwise. A single illustration will suffice. In the island of Chios is a bridge called the Maid’s Bridge, which is popularly believed to be haunted by a water-spirit. Early one morning a man was crossing the bridge on his way from the village of Daphnona to the capital city, when he met a tall young woman dressed in white. She took him by the hand and made him dance with her. He was foolish enough to speak and was immediately struck dumb. He recovered, however, some days after, thanks to the prayers and exorcisms of a priest.
So too the sirens frequent an island near the coast of Italy and entice seamen by the sweetness of their song which is so bewitching that the listeners forget everything and die of hunger. In Homeric mythology there were only two sirens, later writers named three, and the number has since been augmented by those who loved “lords many and gods many.â€
Plato says there are three kinds of sirens—the celestial, the generative and the cathartic. The first are under the government of Jupiter, the second under the government ofNeptune, and the third under the government of Pluto. When the soul is in heaven, the sirens seek, by harmonic motion, to unite it to the divine life of the celestial host; and when in Hades, to conform them to the infernal regimen, but on earth they produce generation, of which the sea is emblematic.
We may tarry a little here to greet a beneficent class of sea-nymphs. These are the Nereids, fifty in number, named after Nereid, daughter of Nereus, the sea-god whose sway extended over the Ægean Sea. Camoens, in hisLusiad, has spiritualised their office, and he makes them the sea-guardians of the virtuous. According to a legend they went before the fleet of Vasco da Gama, and when the treacherous pilot supplied by the King of Mozambique steered his ship towards a sunken rock, these guardian nymphs pressed against the prow, lifting it from the water and turning it round.
To turn back to the malevolent spirits. At Dervinato, a village in the island of Chios, there is a fountain-head, or “water mother,†the common Greek expression for a spring, called Plaghia, which is reputed to be the haunt of a Black Giant. This monster is a crafty demon of Oriental origin who lures the guileless to destruction by various stratagems, generally by assuming the form of a fair maid. He is a being mortally dreaded by the peasantry, and is not so often met with as the water-spirit.
There is also the Drakos, a cousin-german to the Black Giant. Like the Black Giant he also haunts the wells and works mischief on the people by withholding the water. This trick of the monster is alluded to in the following lines, which form the beginning of a song heard at Nigrita:—
Yonder at St. Theodore’s, yonder at St. George’s,A fair was held, a great fair.The space was narrow and the crowd was large.The Drakos held back the water and the people were athirst,Athirst was also a lady who was heavy with child.
Yonder at St. Theodore’s, yonder at St. George’s,A fair was held, a great fair.The space was narrow and the crowd was large.The Drakos held back the water and the people were athirst,Athirst was also a lady who was heavy with child.
Yonder at St. Theodore’s, yonder at St. George’s,
A fair was held, a great fair.
The space was narrow and the crowd was large.
The Drakos held back the water and the people were athirst,
Athirst was also a lady who was heavy with child.
In Greek legends the Drakos figures as a large uncouth monster akin to the Troll of Norse and the Ogre and Giant of British and Continental fairy tales. His simplicity of mind is only equalled by his might and he is easily bamboozled. He is also regarded as a performer of superhuman feats. As in Ireland there is a Giant’s Causeway, so in Macedonia we find a “Drakos’s Weight†(a big stone to the south of Nigrita), a “Drakos’s Shovelful,†(a mound of earth), a “Drakos’s Tomb,†a rock in the same neighbourhood, resembling a high-cappedDervish, resting against the slope of the hill, and a “Drakos’s Quoits,†two solitary rocks standing in the plain of Serres.
Various superstitions concerning drowning can be easily traced to this belief in mischievous water-spirits. These spirits demand human sacrifices and those who get drowned are supposed to be their victims. Thus, when in Germany a person comes by his death from drowning, the Germans say: “The river-spirit claims his annual sacrifice,†or that “the nix has taken the drowned man.†In Indiapujasare invariably offered to propitiate these spirits before any member of a family starts on a journey involving the crossing of the deep or of the rivers. While passing over creeks and streams, travellers on the Indian Railways will notice even to-day many a traveller, Hindu and Parsi, male and female, throwing from the train cocoanuts, sugar and flowers in the water in the devout hope of averting accidents. The followers of Islam, however, believe that God Almighty would, by reason of the benign influence of His name, preserve them from drowning. Therefore, whilst starting on a voyage they chant the following couplet from Surah Nooh of theKoran, as a protective from drowning:—
Bismillaheh Majriha O Mursaha inna Rabi-ul-ghafur ul-Rahim, meaning, “The moving and stopping (of this boat, Noah’s Ark) depends upon the influence of the Name of God, for, in truth, our Lord is pre-eminently a Pardoner of sins and merciful.â€
In the same way Bengal boatmen cry “Badar,†“Badar,†when a boat is in danger of capsizing, in the hope that the saint Khwaja Khizr would protect them.
Others wear amulets to ward off the danger of drowning. In “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan,†Miss Bird says that the amulet which saves the Japs from drowning is “a certain cure for choking, if courageously swallowed.†Some sailors believe that if a portion of the cowl which covers the face of some children at the time of birth be worn as an amulet round the neck, the person wearing it will not get drowned, while some Bengalees believe that if a person accidentally eats ants along with sweets or any foodstuff, he will not get drowned.[40]
Once, however, a man is in the grip of the water-spirit, to venture to save him is, according to various widespread beliefs, sure to bring on disaster. In several places, therefore, including Great Britain, people show great reluctance to save a drowning person, because, as suggested by Tylor, they fear the vengeance of the water-spirit, who would, in consequence, be deprived of his prey.
Thus we gather from Tudor’sOrkney and Shetland, that amongst the seamen of those places it was deemed unlucky to rescue persons from drowning since it was held as a matter of religious faith that the sea was entitled to certain victims, and that, if deprived, it would avenge itself on those who interfere. The still more cautious and considerate people in the Solomon Islands go a step further. If a man accidentally falls into the river and a shark attacks him, he is not allowed to escape. If he does succeed in eluding the shark, his fellow-tribesmen will throw him back to his doom, believing him to be marked out for sacrifice to the god of the river.[41]
In his “Folk Medicine†Black accounts for this superstition on the ground that it is believed that the spirits of people who have died a violent death may return to earth if they can find a substitute and that hence the soul of the last dead man would feel insulted or injured by anyone preventing another from taking his place. Some people on the other hand believe that the reluctance to save drowning persons is due to the belief that the person rescued from being drowned would inflict mischief on the man who saves his life. It would seem from Walter Scott’s novel[42]that this belief prevailed in Scotland. In it asks the pedlar Bryce: “Are you mad? You that have lived so long in Zetland to risk the saving of a drowning man? Wot ye not if we bring him to life again, he will be sure to do you capital injury?â€
This superstition appears to have been confined to the West only. In the East, luckily, there is no such antipathy to extend a helping hand to the drowning. It may be mentioned, however, that in hisPopular Religion and Folklore of Northern IndiaCrooke seems to suggest that this feeling is also common in India, but he cites no examples although he gives several instances and quotes several authorities concerning the Western ideas on the subject. We, however, find no such instance recorded anywhere. In the year 1893 Mr. Sarat Chandra Mitra read before the Anthropological Society of Bombay a paper on some superstitions regarding drowning. He quoted several Western examples concerning the aversion to save drowning people but gave no parallel for any of these from the folklore of Bengal and Upper India with which he is intimately familiar. If such antipathy did exist, that indefatigable student of Indian folklore would have certainly heard of it.
Crooke appears to have confounded two separate, though analogous, ideas, and to have assumed that the prevalence of one connotes the existence of the other. There is, of course,abundant evidence in Indian folklore to show that it was believed throughout this country that the spirits of those persons who got drowned wandered for a hundred years if their corpses were not properly and solemnly buried with all the requisite ceremonies. The spirits of the drowned are, therefore, believed to haunt those rivers and wells and tanks in which they have found their graves, just as the fisher-folk of England believed that the spirits of the sailors who were drowned by a shipwreck frequented those parts of the shores near which the shipwreck took place. In his “Romances in the West of England†Hunt refers to these superstitions. The mere prevalence, however, of one of the superstitious beliefs of the same class in two countries does not warrant the sweeping assertion that the other beliefs also prevail in both the countries.
The worst of all ill-omened streams in India is the dreadVaitaranî, the river of death, which is localized in Orissa and which pours its stream of ordure and blood on the confines of the realm of Yama.[43]Ill fares the man who in that dread hour lacks the aid of a priest and the holy cow to help him to the other shore. But the Indian water furies are easily propitiated. Goats, or fish, or fowl, or even flowers and cocoanuts are enough to appease them. Thus the Tapti and the Sutlej receive goats, whereas the Jata Rohini, the Deo infesting the Karsa, a river in Mirzapur, is pleased with a fish caught by the Buiga and presented to him. Many of the continental water deities, however, must needs have human sacrifices, just as the African river spirit Prah, who must have every year in October two human sacrifices, one male and one female. Thus in England the River Tees, the Skerne, and the Ribble have each a sprite, who, in popular belief, demands human victims. The Ribble’s sprite is known by the name of Peg O’Nell, and a spring in the grounds of Waddow bears her name and is graced by a stone image, now headless, which, according to Sir Laurence Gomme,[44]is said to represent her. A tradition connects the Peg O’Nellwith an ill-used servant at Waddow Hall, who, in revenge for her mistress’s successful malediction in causing her death, was inexorable in demanding every seven years a life to be quenched in the waters of the Ribble. “Peg’s night†was the closing night of the septenniate, and when it came round, unless a bird, a cat, or a dog was drowned in the stream, some human being was certain to fall a victim there.
The sprite of the Tees is called Peg Powler, a sort of Lorelei, says Henderson in hisFolklore of Northern Counties, with green tresses and an insatiable desire for human life. Children were warned from playing on the banks of this river by threats that Peg Powler would drag them into the water.
A horrid Kelpie or water-horse is said to infest the Yore, near Middleham. Every evening he rises from the stream and ramps along the meadows searching for prey, and it is believed that the Kelpie claims at least one human victim annually.
The River Spey must also have at least one victim yearly, while
Blood-thirsty DeeEach year needs three.
Blood-thirsty DeeEach year needs three.
Blood-thirsty Dee
Each year needs three.
Another curious belief concerning the Dee may also be noted. In hisItinerary through WalesGiraldus Cambrensis states that the inhabitants of places near Chester assert that the waters of the river change their fords every month and that as it inclines more towards England or Wales they can with certainty prognosticate which nation will be successful or unfortunate during the year.
The saying runs that “St. John the Baptist must have a runner, must have a swimmer, must have a climber.†As if this were not enough, in Cologne he requires no less than seven swimmers and seven climbers.
Even to this day some German rivers, such as the Saale and the Spree, require their victims on Midsummer Day. During thatparlous season people are careful not to bathe in it. Again, where the beautiful Neckar flows under the ruins of Heidleberg Castle, the spirit of the river seeks to drown three persons, one on Midsummer Eve, one on Midsummer Day, and one on the day after. On these nights if you hear a shriek, as of a drowning man or woman from the water, beware of running to the rescue; for it is only the water-fairy shrieking to lure you to your doom. In Voigtland it was formerly the practice to set up a fine May tree, adorned with all kinds of things, onSt. John’s Day. The people danced round it, and when the lads had fetched down the things with which it was tricked out, the tree was thrown into the water. But before this was done, they sought out somebody whom they treated in the same manner, and the victim of this horseplay was called “the John.†The brawls and disorders, which this custom provoked, led to a suppression of the whole ceremony which was obviously only a modification of an older custom of actually drowning a human being. At Rotenberg on the Neckar people throw a loaf of bread into the water on St. John’s Day, otherwise the river-god would grow angry and carry away a man. Elsewhere, however, the water-sprite is content with flowers. In Bohemia people cast garlands in the water on Midsummer Eve and if the water-sprite pulls one of them down, it is a sign that the person who threw the garland in will die. In the villages of Hesse the girl who first comes to a well early in the morning of Midsummer Day places on the mouth of the well a gay garland of many sorts of flowers culled by her from fields and meadows. Sometimes a number of such garlands are twined together to form a crown with which the well is decked. At Fluda, in addition to the floral decorations of the wells, the neighbours choose a Lord of the Wells and announce his election by sending him a great nosegay of flowers. His house is decorated with green boughs and children walk in procession to it. He goes from house to house collecting materials for a feast, of which the neighbours partake on the followingSunday. What the other duties of the Lord of Wells may be, we are not told. We may however conjecture, says Sir James Frazer, that in old days he had to see to it that the spirits of the water received their dues from men and maidens on that important day.[45]
In those moments of the civilized man’s life when he casts off hard dull science, and returns to childhood’s fancy, the world-old book of animated nature is open to him anew. Then, says Tylor, the well-worn thoughts come back fresh to him, of the stream’s life that is so like his own; once more he can see the rill leap down the hillside like a child, to wander playing among the flowers; or can follow it as, grown to a river, it rushes through a mountain gorge, henceforth in sluggish strength to carry heavy burdens across the plain. In all that water does, the poet’s fancy can discern its personality of life. It gives fish to the fisher, and crops to the husbandman; it swells in fury and lays waste the land; it grips the bather with chill and cramp, and holds with inexorable grasp its drowning victim:—
“Tweed said to Till,‘What gars ye tin sae still?’Till said to Tweed,‘Though ye rin wi’ speed,And I rin slaw,Yet, where ye drown ae man,I drown twa.’â€
“Tweed said to Till,‘What gars ye tin sae still?’Till said to Tweed,‘Though ye rin wi’ speed,And I rin slaw,Yet, where ye drown ae man,I drown twa.’â€
“Tweed said to Till,
‘What gars ye tin sae still?’
Till said to Tweed,
‘Though ye rin wi’ speed,
And I rin slaw,
Yet, where ye drown ae man,
I drown twa.’â€
What ethnography has to teach of that great element of the religion of mankind, the worship of well and lake, brook and river, is simply this that what is poetry to us was philosophy to early man; that to his mind water acted not by laws of force, but by life and will; that the water-spirits of primeval mythology are as souls which cause the water’s rush and rest, its kindness and its cruelty; that lastly man finds, in the beings whichwith such power can work him weal and woe, deities with a wider influence over his life, deities to be feared and loved, to be prayed to and praised and propitiated with sacrificial gifts.[46]
“In Australia,†continues Tylor, “special water-demons infest pools and watering places. In the native theory of disease and death, no personage is more prominent than the water-spirit, which afflicts those who go into unlawful pools or bathe at unlawful times, the creature which causes women to pine and die, and whose very presence is death to the beholder, save to the native doctors, who may visit the water-spirit’s subaqueous abode and return with bleared eyes and wet clothes to tell the wonders of their stay. It would seem that creatures with such attributes come naturally into the category of spiritual beings, but in such stories as that of the bunyip living in the lakes and rivers and seen floating as big as a calf, which carries off native women to his retreat below the waters, there appears that confusion between the spiritual water-demon and the material water-monster, which runs on into the midst of European mythology in such conceptions as that of the water-kelpie and the sea-serpent.â€
The same confusion of ideas is seen in the Macedonian ballad of the Haunted Well. Here too the spirit or demon of the well is confounded with the water-serpent. The ballad, as quoted in Mr. Abbott’sMacedonian Folklore, runs as follows:—
THE HAUNTED WELL.Four and five, nine brothers,Eighteen cousins, lads of little luck:A message came to them from the King, bidding themTo go forth and fight in the far-off land of the Franks:“Thy blessing, mother, that we may go forth!â€â€œMay ye go forth nine brothers and come back eight;May John the youngest never return!â€They set forth, and as they crossed the vast plain,They lived forty days without bread,Forty-five more without water,And then they found a dear little fount; but it was a spirit-haunted well:’Twas thirty fathoms in depth; in breadth twenty.“Halt, dear brothers and let us cast lots,He on whom the lot will fall, let him go in,â€The lot falls on John, the youngest.They bind John and let him down:“Draw, dear brothers, draw me out,Here there is no water; but only a Spirit.â€â€œWe are drawing, John, we are drawing; but thou stirrest not.â€â€œThe serpent has wound itself round my body, the Spirit is holding me.Come, set the Black One also to help you.â€When the Black One heard, he neighed loud.He reared on his haunches to draw him out.When he drew out his arms, the mountains gleamed,He draws out his sword also, and the sea gleamed.They drew out John together with the spirit,They lifted their knives to cut it asunder,But instead of cutting the Spirit they cut the rope,And John falls in together with the Spirit:“Leave me, brothers, leave me and go home,Do not tell my dear mother that I am dead,Tell her, brothers, that I am married,That I have taken the tombstone for a mother-in-law, Black Earth for a wife,And the fine grass blades all for brothers and sisters-in-law.â€
THE HAUNTED WELL.Four and five, nine brothers,Eighteen cousins, lads of little luck:A message came to them from the King, bidding themTo go forth and fight in the far-off land of the Franks:“Thy blessing, mother, that we may go forth!â€â€œMay ye go forth nine brothers and come back eight;May John the youngest never return!â€They set forth, and as they crossed the vast plain,They lived forty days without bread,Forty-five more without water,And then they found a dear little fount; but it was a spirit-haunted well:’Twas thirty fathoms in depth; in breadth twenty.“Halt, dear brothers and let us cast lots,He on whom the lot will fall, let him go in,â€The lot falls on John, the youngest.They bind John and let him down:“Draw, dear brothers, draw me out,Here there is no water; but only a Spirit.â€â€œWe are drawing, John, we are drawing; but thou stirrest not.â€â€œThe serpent has wound itself round my body, the Spirit is holding me.Come, set the Black One also to help you.â€When the Black One heard, he neighed loud.He reared on his haunches to draw him out.When he drew out his arms, the mountains gleamed,He draws out his sword also, and the sea gleamed.They drew out John together with the spirit,They lifted their knives to cut it asunder,But instead of cutting the Spirit they cut the rope,And John falls in together with the Spirit:“Leave me, brothers, leave me and go home,Do not tell my dear mother that I am dead,Tell her, brothers, that I am married,That I have taken the tombstone for a mother-in-law, Black Earth for a wife,And the fine grass blades all for brothers and sisters-in-law.â€
THE HAUNTED WELL.
Four and five, nine brothers,
Eighteen cousins, lads of little luck:
A message came to them from the King, bidding them
To go forth and fight in the far-off land of the Franks:
“Thy blessing, mother, that we may go forth!â€
“May ye go forth nine brothers and come back eight;
May John the youngest never return!â€
They set forth, and as they crossed the vast plain,
They lived forty days without bread,
Forty-five more without water,
And then they found a dear little fount; but it was a spirit-haunted well:
’Twas thirty fathoms in depth; in breadth twenty.
“Halt, dear brothers and let us cast lots,
He on whom the lot will fall, let him go in,â€
The lot falls on John, the youngest.
They bind John and let him down:
“Draw, dear brothers, draw me out,
Here there is no water; but only a Spirit.â€
“We are drawing, John, we are drawing; but thou stirrest not.â€
“The serpent has wound itself round my body, the Spirit is holding me.
Come, set the Black One also to help you.â€
When the Black One heard, he neighed loud.
He reared on his haunches to draw him out.
When he drew out his arms, the mountains gleamed,
He draws out his sword also, and the sea gleamed.
They drew out John together with the spirit,
They lifted their knives to cut it asunder,
But instead of cutting the Spirit they cut the rope,
And John falls in together with the Spirit:
“Leave me, brothers, leave me and go home,
Do not tell my dear mother that I am dead,
Tell her, brothers, that I am married,
That I have taken the tombstone for a mother-in-law, Black Earth for a wife,
And the fine grass blades all for brothers and sisters-in-law.â€
The maleficent deities are also responsible for floods. When therefore, heavy floods threatened a village or a city in Gujarat, the king or the headman used to go in procession to propitiate the river with flowers, cocoanuts, and other offerings, so that the floods should subside. Similarly, in the Punjab, when a village is in danger of being flooded, the headman makes an offering of a cocoanut and a rupee to the flood-demon. The cocoanut represents the head of a human being and is believed to be acceptable to the water-demon in lieu of a human victim.The headman stands in the water and holds the offering in his hand. When the flood rises high enough to wash the offering from his hand, it is understood that the waters will abate. Some people throw seven handfuls of boiled wheat and sugar into the stream and distribute the remainder among the persons present. Some take a male buffalo, a horse, or a ram, and after boring the right ear of the victim, throw it into the water. If the victim is a horse, it is saddled before it is offered.
In Bengal goats are sacrificed to propitiate the river-goddess in her malignant form when she devastates the land with floods or engulfs the swimmers. The goats are often thrown alive into the water and are taken out by men of the boatman caste, who eat their flesh. Many ascetics perform a special penance in her honour, which consists in spending every night in the month of January, when the cold is intense, seated on a small platform erected over the river and engaged in such prayer and meditation as their sufferings from the cold will allow.[47]Crooke says that when the town and temples at Hardwar were in imminent danger during the Gohna flood, the Brahmans poured vessels of milk, rice and flowers into the waters of Mother Ganges and prayed to her to spare them. Similarly, a story is related in the Folklore Notes of Gujarat of the occurrence of heavy floods in a village in the Jalalpurtaluka, when a certain lady placed an earthen vessel (ordinarily used for curdling milk), containingghee, afloat on the floods, whereupon the waters were at once seen to recede.
A few years ago the river Musi overflowed and caused terrible destruction. His Highness the Nizam thereupon went to the river, took off his turban, and threw it into the water in the hope that such submissiveness of a prince might appease the wrath of the river.[48]
Ocean-Worship.
Ocean-Worship.
Narali Purnimaor Cocoanut Day.
Narali Purnimaor Cocoanut Day.
The calamity of floods should not, however, be exclusively attributed to sheer demoniacal influence of malignant spirits. It may, in some cases, be due to the offence given to patron saints of water. Curtiss relates,[49]on the authority of Rev. J. Steward Crawford, an old resident in Syria, a remarkable incident which occurred at Nebk. The town derives its water-supply from a series of wells connected with one another. Once, owing to heavy rains, there came a succession of three floods which washed away the wells which had been repaired after each catastrophe. This left no room for doubt that theValiof the wells had been offended. They began to ascertain the reason and discovered that the sacrifices which had been offered to the saint at an annual festival had been intermitted, that people used to perform their ablutions in a portion of the stream which was inside of the courtyard of themukam(shrine), thus defiling it, and that a dead body had been carried across the stream. All this had angered the saint. Sacrifices were, therefore, offered to propitiate him. A number of sheep were stationed over the stream and their throats were cut so that the blood would run into the water.
It is refreshing to turn from these river wraiths to the spirits of the sea, who are more powerful but less exacting. A cocoanut is enough to keep them in good humour, and a special day is named for this offering, calledNarali Purnima, or Cocoanut Holiday. On that day multitudes of people flock to the sea-shore in Bombay to offer theirpujato the sea to keep it quiet after the monsoon. The Brahmin first offers prayers, then the votary throws into the sea the holy water which the Brahmin pours into the hollow of his hands, then some red lead, then a few flowers and some rice, and last of all the cocoanut. The safety of the seas during the fair season is thus insured.
Whence arose the fear of evil spirits? Who were those water demons? Both philology and history confirm the view that theDevasor demons of old were in many cases either the conquered aborigines of the various lands in which the ancient Aryans settled themselves, or hostile races dwelling along their frontiers. Out of this hostility of races coming in close contact with one another sprang various superstitions. In some cases the armies of the aborigines were represented as accompanied by their own guardian spirits, who waged war upon the newcomers and who were therefore regarded as demoniacal. In other cases, the aborigines were themselves credited with the power of exercising demon functions or assuming demon forms. Thus the people of Iran believed that the land of Turan was full of demons. This influence of the conquered people did not die out after the struggle with them was over. Not only did the aborigines continue to believe in their own demoniacal powers and to observe their old rites and customs in the new régime, but they also spread the beliefs in many ways among their conquerors.
All untoward occurrences and unusual natural phenomena thus came to be attributed to the malignant action of those evil spirits. Storms, floods, famines, disease and death all proceeded from theDevas, who in theYasna Haptanhaitiof the Zoroastrians are described as “the wicked, bad, wrongful originators of mischief, the most baneful, destructive and basest of beings.†Professor Robertson Smith relegates demonism to the position of a cult hostile to and separate from the tribal beliefs of early people and Mr. Walhouse points out[50]that these beliefs in demons “belong to the Turanian races and are antagonistic to the Aryan genius and feelings.â€
No doubt, Max Müller holds a different view. He considers that there is no difficulty in tracing a belief in evil, unclean and maleficent spirits, such as abound in Atharva-Veda, to the same soil which produced a faith in good and beneficent spirits. “We need not go for them,†says he, “to the original inhabitant of India or the Blacks of Australia. Some of the great Vedic gods like Rudra and the Maruts often assume a double aspect. They are unkind as well as kind, they cause disease though they likewise heal them. We have plenty of evil spirits in the Veda, such as Vritras, Rakshasas, Yâmdhânas, Pisâkas. Of course, nothing is easier than to say that they were borrowed from the native races of India, but this, which was formerly a very favourite expedient, would hardly commend itself now to any serious scholar, excepting always the cases where Dravidian words can actually be discovered in Sanscrit.â€
These comments, however, merely contain a warning not to stretch too widely a partial explanation of the origin of evil spirits. The race-origin of the lesser malignant spirits may not account for the existence of the Vedic giants and demons. Neither has anyone attempted to do so. There is, however, no doubt that several of the myths ofbhutsanddâkans, giants and dwarfs, are connected with traditions of hostile races. Folklore throws considerable light on this question and a good deal of evidence has been brought forward by Grimm and other folklorists. Tylor has endorsed this evidence and the influence of the hostility of races on the beliefs of people in many lands is very skilfully examined by Sir Laurence Gomme in a chapter entitled the “Mythic influence of a conquered race†in hisEthnology of Folklore, and also in a chapter on “Ethnological conditions†in his later work,Folklore as an Historical Science. For our present purpose one or two examples from Indian Folklore will suffice. On Bombay side, when a person is possessed, generally the evil spirit is of a low caste, a Mahar, or Bhanghi or a Mochi or a Pinjari. Thedâkans(witches) who haunt our wayside wells and trees and cemeteries also belongto such low castes, as Kolis, Vaghris and Charans. The mountain ranges and jungle tracts of Southern India are still inhabited by semi-savage tribes, who, there is good reason to believe, once held the fertile open plains. As pointed out by Walhouse in theJournal of the Anthropological Society, the contempt and loathing in which they are ordinarily held, are curiously tinctured with superstitious fear; for they are believed to possess secret powers of magic and witchcraft and influence with the old malignant deities of the soil who can direct good or evil fortune. To this day the people of Chota Nagpur believe that the Moondahs possess powers of sorcery and can transform themselves into tigers and other beasts of prey with a view to devouring their enemies. Similarly, the Kathodis are believed to transform themselves into tigers. Many closely parallel beliefs can be quoted from the history of demonism in the western world and Sir Laurence Gomme points out that the general characteristics of the superstitions brought about by the contact between the Aryan conquerors of India and the non-Aryan aborigines are also represented in the cult of European witchcraft. Underneath the emblems of the foreign civilisation lie the traditional custom and belief, “the attributes of the native uncivilisation.â€
A notable illustration is given by Evans Wentz inFairy Faith in Celtic Countries. The only true Cornish Fairy, says the author, is the Piksy, of the race which is thePohel Veanor Little People, and the Spriggan is only one of his aspects. The Piksy would seem to be the “Brownie†of the Lowland Scot, theDuine Sithof the Highlanders, and if we may judge from an interesting note in Scott’sPirate, the “Peight†of the Orkneys. IfDuine Sithreally means “the Folk of the Mounds (burrows),†not the “People of Peace,†it is possible that there is something in the theory that Brownie,Duine Sith, and “Peight,†which is Pict, are only in their origin ways of expressing the little dark-complexioned aboriginal folk who were supposed to inhabit the burrows, cromlechs, and allées couvertes, and whose cunning,their only effective weapon against the mere strength of the Aryan invader, earned them a reputation for magical powers.[51]
Let us now see how far this view of the case helps us in understanding the Parsi beliefs in the Mahomedan guardian spirits of wells, to which reference has already been made. The relations of the Parsis with the Hindus and Mahomedans in the land of their adoption were not exactly those of conquered aborigines to the conquerors, but were, until the advent of the English, practically the same as those of subject races to the rulers. It was, however, no case of contact with a higher culture, rather it was the case of assimilation of a ruder culture. No doubt, the Parsis had taken to India from their ancient home a belief in the existence of a presiding genius of water. That, however, was a belief considerably different from that which in India gave the water-spirits a local habitation and a name. But by long contact with the Hindus and Mahomedans the community came to believe in several local deities and absorbed several local rituals. No doubt, the primary factor in inducing this recognition and worship of local deities was the fear of their power to do harm, but with it must also have been blended the desire to please the neighbouring communities and the hope of receiving favours at the hands of the spirits if properly adored and propitiated.
This it was that seems to have led many a Parsi in the mofussil to offer oil at the temple ofHanumanor to take flowers to the shrines of Mahomedan saints, whose aid they sought and who did not fail to appear to them, warning them and directing them, mostly in dreams. When they went to Bombay they had already absorbed the Hindu ideas concerning the spirits lurking in or near deserted tanks and wells and regarded them as the haunts of evil spirits such asdâkansandsankhinis,bhutsandprets. When, however, they dug wells in their own houses, in the absence of any well-spirit in the Zoroastrian pantheon and in the absence of any Hindu guardian-spiritsof household wells, they appear to have invariably peopled their private wells withsayyidsandpirsin whose virtues they had already come to believe and whom they had already venerated at their shrines and whom it was thus convenient for them to honour in their own houses by giving them asthanorthanakin their wells.
Thus we see that what was at first a purely Scriptural belief in the sanctity of water and its presiding genius is now a medley of many divergent elements owing to the fusion of divers local traditions with the fundamental tribal belief during the long intercourse of the community with the Hindus and Mahomedans. There is no country in the world where people live under more varied social and religious conditions and where they are more exposed to the influence of neighbours than in India and of all the cities of this cosmopolitan country there is none more cosmopolitan than the city of Bombay.
Possibly, if we carry on local research in the Bombay Presidency and try to localise the beliefs and customs concerning well-worship, a good deal of fresh light may be thrown on this question. The work is by no means very difficult and with the aid of European folklorists, who have already shown us the way, it should be easy to carry on research throughout India. Sir Laurence Gomme, for instance, has given us in a luminous chapter on the localisation of primitive beliefs, a very skilful analysis of the different phases in which water-worship is still found in the United Kingdom. All the survivals of this cult he has allocated and explained by their ethnological bearing.
Commencing with the Teutonic centres of England, Sir Laurence Gomme shows that the middle and south-eastern counties almost fix the boundary of one form of well-worship, a form which has lost all local colour, all distinct ritual, and remains only in the dedication of the well or spring to a saint of the Christian Church, in the tradition of its name as a “holy well,†or else in the memory of some sort of reverence formerly paid to the waters, which in many cases are nameless. Proceeding from small beginnings where the survival of the ancient cult is represented by the simple idea of reverence for wells mostly dedicated to a Christian saint, he takes us through stages where a ceremonial is faintly traced in the well-dressing with garlands decked with flowers and ribbons, where shrubs and trees growing near the well are the recipients of offerings by devotees to the spirit of the well, where disease and sickness of all kinds are ministered to, where aid is sought against enemies, where the gift of rain is obtained, where the spirits appear in general forms as fairies and in specific form as animal or fish, and finally, it may be in anthropomorphic form as Christian saints, where priestesses attend the well to preside over the ceremonies. With the several variants overlapping at every stage and thus keeping the whole group of superstition and custom in touch, one section with another, he shows that there is every reason to identify this cult as the most widespread and the most lasting in connection with local natural objects. He points out, moreover, that it is in the Celtic-speaking districts where the rudest and most uncivilised ceremonial is extant, and further, that it is in the country of the Goidelic or earliest branch of the Celts, where this finds its most pronounced types.
To show how this may be translated into terms of ethnology he has given us the following table showing where the survivals of the cult are the most perfect, that is to say, less touched by the incoming civilisations which have swept over them:—
It may be gathered from this table that the acts of simple reverence, garland-dressing, and dedication to a Christian saint are to be taken as the late expressions in popular tradition of the earlier and more primitive acts and practices tabulated above. Taking the more primitive elements as the basis, the author shows that the lowest point is obtained from English ground, which only rises into the primitive stages in the northerncounties where rag-bushes are found. On Welsh ground the highest point of primitive culture is the tradition of an animal guardian-spirit. On Irish ground the highest point is the identification of the well deity with the rain-god, while on Scottish ground the highest points recognisable elsewhere are accentuated in degree.
The author also shows that garland-dressing, pins and rag-bushes, the three forms in which offerings to the well-deities are made, are but variants of one primitive form—namely, the offerings of rags or parts of clothing upon bushes sacred to the well. This species of offerings, according to a summary given by General Pitt-Rivers, extends throughout Northern Africa from west to east. Mungo Park mentions it in Western Africa; Sir Samuel Baker speaks of it on the confines of Abyssinia, and says that the people who practised it were unable to assign a reason for doing so; Burton also found the same custom in Arabia during his pilgrimage to Mecca; in Persia Sir William Ouseley saw a tree close to a large monolith covered with these rags, and he describes it as a practice appertaining to a religion long since proscribed in that country; Colonel Leslie says that in the Dekkan and Ceylon the trees in the neighbourhood of wells may be seen covered with similar scraps of cotton; Dr. A. Campbell speaks of it as being practised by the Limboos near Darjeeling in the Himalayas, where it is associated, as in Ireland, with large heaps of stones; and Huc in his travels mentions it among the Tartars. We shall examine the ideas underlying the practice of rag-offering in different countries in a separate chapter. Meanwhile, the conclusion that Sir Laurence Gomme draws from this summary may be noted in his own words:—
“Here not only do we get evidence of the cult in an Aryan country like Persia being proscribed, but, as General Pitt-Rivers observes, ‘it is impossible to believe that so singular a custom as this, invariably associated with cairns, megalithic monuments, holy wells, or some such early Pagan institutions, could have arisen independently in all these countries.’ Thatthe area over which it is found is coterminous with the area of the megalithic monuments, that these monuments take us back to pre-Aryan people and suggest the spread of this people over the area covered by their remains, are arguments in favour of a megalithic date for well-worship and rag-offerings.â€
This ramble of ours through many ages and many lands in search of evidence of water-worship may now be brought to a close. Let us now witness the ceremonies connected with the digging of wells and the different customs of decorating wells and the varied offerings proffered to the nymphs and spirits residing in the waters. With the picture that will be thus presented of Indian wells decked withjalis(trellis work) of flowers and illumined withghee-lamps, their pavements strewn with cocoanuts, sugar and sweets and milk andghee, and smeared with red lead in lieu of blood, but daubed also in some places with the blood of animal-sacrifice, it will be interesting to contrast the picture of English wells fantastically tapestried about with old rags and practically unlit and unembellished, save for a little garland-dressing here and there, and filled with pins and needles, buttons and coins.