Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/75

 GUARDIAN SPIRITS OF WELLS AND LOCHS.

following beliefs regarding Guardian Spirits of Wells and Lochs were collected in Strathdon and Corgarff, Aberdeenshire, by the help of Mr. William Michie Farmer, Coull of Newe, and Mr. James Farquharson, Corgarff. Distance from libraries and want of books of reference have prevented me from quoting similar beliefs among other nations and tribes except in the very slightest way. I have contented myself with merely stating the beliefs.

, i.e.,

This well is situated at the bottom of a steep hill in a fork between two small streams on the estate of Allargue, Corgarff There are three springs that supply the water, distant from each other about a yard. The well is circular, with a diameter of about twelve feet. The sides are about five or six feet deep, with an opening on the lower side through which the water flows out.

The water running from these springs is of great virtue in curing diseases—each spring curing a disease. One spring cured blindness, another cured deafness, and the third lameness. The springs were guarded by a Spirit that lived under a large stone, called "The Kettle Stone", which lay between two of the springs. No cure was effected unless gold was presented to the Spirit, which she placed in a kettle below the stone. Hence its name of "Kettle Stone". If one tried to rob the Spirit, death, by some terrible accident, soon followed. My informant, James Farquharson, more than fifty years ago, when a lad