Some saints' wells were believed to have the power of foretelling whether the patients on whose behalf they were invoked would recover,--a superstition which may be traced to Greek paganism of a time thousands of years before the Christian era. St. Andrew's Well, at Shadar, in the island of Lewis, was reputed to possess this power. A vessel filled with water from the spring was taken to the patient's abode, and a small wooden dish placed on the surface. If this turned towards the east, it was held to denote that the patient would recover; but if in the opposite direction that he would die. "I am inclined," says Mr Gomme, "to connect this with the vessel or cauldron so frequently occurring in Celtic tradition, and which Mr Nutt has marked as 'a part of the gear of the oldest Celtic divinities,' perhaps of divinities older than the Celts." The Virgin's Well, near the ancient church of Kilmorie, in Wigtonshire, was also reputed to possess this power. If the patient on behalf of whom the prophetic power of the well was sought would recover, the water flowed freely; but in the contrary case it failed to well up. Votive offerings have been mentioned as made to the saints to whom wells were dedicated, and thus became holy. At Montblairie, in Banffshire, shreds of linen and woollen were hung on the bushes beside a consecrated well, and farthings and halfpence were thrown into the water. Miller, in his "Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland," notices a similar custom as practised in the vicinity of Cromarty, his native town. He says, "It is not yet twenty years since a thorn, which formed a little canopy over the spring of St. Bennet, used to be covered anew every season with little pieces of rag, left on it as offerings to the saint by sick people who came to drink of the water."