Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/182

174 wells celebrated for curative powers, such as the Well of St. Wallack. "Both the bath and well of St. Wallack still remain near the ruined aisle of Wallakirk, parish of Glass, Aberdeenshire. The saint's bath is cut in the rock to a depth of nearly four feet, and supplied with water by a small spring which flows into it. The well was annually resorted to until a very recent date, on the saint's day, for the cure of diseased eyes, and weakly children dipped in the bath were believed to be restored to vigour" (p. 56).

Mr. J. Russel Walker, F.S.A.Scot., contributes to the same volume a very valuable paper on "Holy Waters in Scotland," but as it extends to sixty pages I cannot attempt to analyse it here. He records the reported medicinal value of many of these wells, and gives a modern instance of faith in the water of St. Anthony's Well, Edinburgh:—"To an incident which showed that the faith and belief in the healing virtues of the wells is still strong, the writer was but a few months ago an eye-witness. While walking in the Queen's Park about sunset I casually passed St. Anthony's Well, and had my attention attracted by the number of people about it, all simply, quenching their thirst, some possibly with a dim idea that they would reap some benefit from the draught. Standing a little apart, however, and evidently patiently waiting a favourable moment to present itself for their purpose, was a group of four. Feeling somewhat curious as to their intentions, I quietly kept myself in the background, and by-and-by was rewarded. The crowd departed and the group came forward, consisting of two old women, a younger woman of about thirty, and a pale sickly-looking girl—a child of three or four years old. Producing cups from their pockets, the old women dipped them in the pool, filled them, and drank their contents. A full cup was then presented to the younger woman, and another to the child; then one of the old women produced a long linen bandage, dipped it in the water, wrung it, dipped it in again, and then wound it round the child's head, covering the eyes; the youngest woman, evidently the mother of the child, carefully observing the operation and weeping gently all the time. The other old woman not engaged in this work was carefully filling a clear flat glass bottle with the water, evidently for future use. Then after the principal operators had looked at each