Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/232

 2 24 ^- ^^^- ^^oore.

special spring^ mentioned by Colgan, the discovery in the present year of a drain^ some eight yards north, and sh"ghtly to the west of the place where the sarcophagus was dug up, renders its existence highly probable. There are also drains to the south of this place, and in various other parts of the churchyard.

We may next notice CJiibbcr Undin, or " Foundation Well", in the parish of Malew, probably so called in refer- ence to the foundation of an ancient kceill, or cell, close by. The following account was given to the writer, of the ritual formerly observed there : The patients who came to it took a mouthful of water, retaining it in their mouths till they had walked round the well sunways twice. They then took a piece of cloth from a garment which they were wearing, wetted it with water from the well, and hung it on a hawthorn-tree which grew there. When the cloth had rotted away the cure was supposed to be effected.^ A slight variation from this ritual has been communicated by the Rev. E. B. Savage, who was told that the rag was wetted with water from the mouth of the patient, not direct from the well. The chief virtue in this well was in promoting fertility among women, and it was especially efficacious if used on St. John's Eve. There is a well on the hill known as Goh-y- Vollee (" Eyebrow Point"), in the parish of Ballaugh, called Chibbyr Lansh (where the mean- ing of lansh is unknown), consisting of three pools, which was formerly much resorted to for the cure of sore eyes. The cure could only be effective if the patient came on Sunday, and on that day, according to Prof Rhys, only during the time when the books were open at church.*

1 The Rev. S. N. Harrison has also discovered a built-up well, 6 feet wide, at the southern end of an old building at the south-eastern corner of the churchyard.

2 This drain is of stone, a foot or more in depth, i8 inches wide, and four or five feet below the surface.

^ See A. W. Moore, Surjuinies and Place-Naincs of the Isle oj Man, p.. i8i. 4 " Manx .Superstitions," Folk-Lore, vol. ii, p. 307.