Hugh Miller, in his “Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland,” recounts a tradition concerning a certain spring near the town of Cromarty known as Fiddler’s Well, from the name of the young man who discovered its virtues. The water gushes out from the side of a bank covered with moss and daisies. The tradition, considerably abbreviated, is as follows:—William Fiddler and a companion were seized with consumption at the same time. The latter died not long afterwards, and Fiddler, though wasted to a shadow, was able to follow his friend’s body to the grave. That night, in a dream, he heard the voice of his dead companion, who told him to meet him at a certain spot in the neighbourhood of the town. Thither he went, still in his dream, and seated himself on a bank to await his coming. Then, remembering that his friend was dead, he burst into tears. “At this moment a large field-bee came humming from the west and began to fly round his head …. It hummed ceaselessly round and round him, until at length its murmurings seemed to be fashioned into words, articulated in the voice of his deceased companion—‘Dig, Willie, and drink!’ it said, ‘Dig, Willie, and drink!’ He accordingly set himself to dig, and no sooner had he torn a sod out of the bank than a spring of clear water gushed from the hollow.” Next day he took the bee’s advice. He found a spring, drank the water, and regained his health. Hugh Miller adds, “its virtues are still celebrated, for though the water be only simple water it must be drunk in the morning, and as it gushes from the bank; and, with pure air, exercise, and early rising for its auxiliaries, it continues to work cures.”
We need not multiply examples of non-mineral healing wells. Whatever benefit may be derived from them cannot be ascribed to any specially medicinal quality in their waters. The secret of their popularity is to be sought for in the annals of medical folklore, and not in those of scientific medicine.
Certain springs got the credit of warding off disease. On the island of Gigha, near the west coast of Kintyre, is a farm called Ardachad or High Field. Tradition says that a plague once visited the island, but that the people, belonging to the farm, escaped its ravages. This immunity was ascribed to the good offices of a well, in an adjoining field. The high situation of the farm and the presence of good water would tend to prolong health, without the intervention of magic. The Rev. Dr. Gregor, in his “Folklore of the North-East of Scotland,” alludes to St. Olaus’ Well in Cruden parish, Aberdeenshire. Its virtues are recorded in the couplet—
“St. Olav’s Well, low by the sea
Where peat nor plague shall never be.”
On the top of the Touch Hills, in Stirlingshire, rises St. Corbet’s Spring. The belief formerly prevailed that whoever drank its water before sunrise on the first Sunday of May would have life prolonged for another year. As a consequence, crowds flocked to the spot early on the day in question. In 1840 some old people were still living who, in their younger days, had taken part in these annual pilgrimages. In mediæval times, the belief prevailed that no one baptised with the water of Trinity Gask Well, Perthshire, would be attacked by the plague. When water for baptism was drawn from some holy well in the neighbourhood, its use, in most instances, was doubtless due to a belief in its prophylactic power. As already mentioned, baptisms in St. Machar’s Cathedral, Old Aberdeen, were at one time administered in water taken from the saint’s spring. Before the Reformation the water used at the chapel of Airth, in Stirlingshire, is believed to have been procured from a well, dedicated to the Virgin, near Abbeyton Bridge. We do not know of any spring in Scotland with a reputation for the prevention of hydrophobia. St. Maelrubha’s Well, on Innis Maree, is said to have lost its efficacy for a time through contact with a mad dog. What happened, when a mad bull was plunged into the Holy Pool at Strathfillan, will be alluded to later. In the village of Les Saintes Maries, in the south of France, is an interesting twelfth-century church with a well in the crypt. The water, when drunk, is said to prevent any evil consequences from the bite of a mad dog. Mr. E. H. Barker gives an account of this well in his “Wayfaring in France.” He says, “The curé told me that about thirty people, who had been bitten by dogs said to be rabid, came annually to drink the water; and, he added, ‘not one of them has ever gone mad.’ M. Pasteur had become a formidable rival of the well.”
CHAPTER VII.
Water-Cures.
Trying different Springs—Curing all Diseases—Fivepennies Well—Water and Dulse—Special Diseases—Toothache—Sore Eyes—Blindness—Headaches and Nervous Disorders—Deafness—Whooping-cough—Gout—Sores—Ague—Sterility—Epilepsy—Sacrifice of a Cock—St. Tegla’s Well—Insanity—Severe Treatment—Innis-Maree—Struthill—Teampull-Mòr—Hol y Pool—Fillan’s History and Relics—Persistence of Superstition.