CHAPTER XII. OFFERINGS AT LOCHS AND SPRINGS. Votive Offerings--Gifts usually of Small Value--Toubir-nim-buadh --Rumbling Well--Heath--Rags--St. Wallach's Bath--Pins at St. Wallach's Well--Luckiness of Things Crooked--Pins Rising in Wells --Tobar-na-Glas-a-Coille--Lix Well--Pebbles--Coins--St. Jergon's Well--Silver Wells--Brass Well--Well at Avoch Castle--Introduction of Loch Katrine Water into Glasgow--Some Glasgow Springs--St. Thenew's Well--St. Winifred's Well--Dr. Patrick Anderson--Offerings in France--Gifts in Consecrated Buildings--Philosophy of Votive Offerings--Infection in Folklore--Safety of Offerings--Transference of Disease--Results of Theft of Offerings--Pennies in Holy Loch-- Money in Clach-nan-Sul--Well-Dressing--Not Found in Scotland-- Festival at Tissington--Roman and English Fontinalia--Royal Oak-Day at Endon. Offerings at lochs and springs have been incidentally mentioned more than once, but the subject is one deserving separate treatment. Wells were not merely so much water, with stones and turf round them, and lochs, sheets of water, encompassed by moorland or forest. They were, as we have seen, the haunts of spirits, propitious if remembered, but resentful if neglected. Hence no one thought it proper to come to them empty-handed. The principle was, no gift, no cure. Classical literature contains allusions to such votive offerings. Numa sacrificed a sheep to a fountain, and Horace promised to offer to his sweet Bandusian spring a kid not without flowers. Near Toulouse, in France, was a sacred lake, into whose water the neighbouring tribes anciently threw offerings of gold and silver. In our own country, the gifts were, as a rule, of small intrinsic value. When speaking of Toubir-nim-buadh, in St. Kilda, Macaulay says:--"Near the fountain stood an altar on which the distressed votaries laid down their oblations. Before they could touch the sacred water with any prospect of success, it was their constant practice to address the genius of the place with supplication and prayer. No one approached him with empty hands. But the devotees were abundantly frugal. The offerings, presented by them, were the poorest acknowledgments that could be made to a superior being, from whom they had either hopes or fears. Shells and pebbles, rags of linen, or stuffs worn out, pins, needles, or rusty nails, were generally all the tribute that was paid; and sometimes, though rarely enough, copper coins of the smallest value." The appearance of this well is thus described by the author of "Ecclesiological Notes":--"A low square-shaped massy stone building with a stone roof, covers the spring, which, after forming a pool in the floor of the cell, runs down the russet slope like a thread of silver to join the stream in the valley."