mingled with the water. Bodily ailments were cured by washing in it, and it was used as one of the many remedies to remove the evil effects of witchcraft. In this, as in the other rites previously alluded to, we see the influence of a cult that did not pass away, when the sun ceased to be worshipped as a divinity. In other words, Well-worship cannot be adequately understood if we leave out of account archaic Sun-worship, and its modern survivals. CHAPTER XVIII. WISHING-WELLS. Fulfilment of Wishes by Divination--Love Charms--Hallow E'en Rites, &c.--Wishing Tree--Wishing Holes--St. Govan's Chapel and Well--Walsingham Wells--Wishing Stone in St. John's Well--Healing Wells and Wishing Wells--St. David's Well--Bride's Well--Marriage--Special Times for Wishing--St. Warna and Wrecks--Wishing Well at West Kilbride--St. Anthony's Spring. To bring about the accomplishment of a cherished desire by means of certain rites has been a favourite mode of divination. By this method it was thought that destiny could be coerced, and the wish made the father of its own fulfilment. The means were various; but, underlying them all, was the notion that the doing of something, in the present, guaranteed the happening of something in the future. A mere wish was not sufficient. A particular spot, hallowed by old associations, had to be visited, and a time-honoured ceremony observed. But the ritual might be of the simplest. It was perchance to some rustic gate that the village maiden stole in the gathering gloaming, and there, with beating heart, breathed the wish that was to bring a new happiness into her life. Love charms, indeed, form an important group of wishing superstitions. To this class belong Hallow E'en rites, such as eating an apple before a mirror, and sowing hemp seed. These rites gave the maiden a vision of her destined husband. In the one case, she saw his face in the glass, and in the other, she saw him in the attitude of pulling hemp. The dumb-cake divination, on the Eves of St. Mark and St. John, also belongs to the same class of charms. Not more than three must take part in the mystical ceremony. Concerning the cake, an English rule says:-- "Two make it, Two bake it, Two break it, and the third must put it under each of their pillows, but not a word must be spoken all the time." Fasting on St. Agnes's Eve was requisite on the part of any maiden, who sought on that festival to have a vision of her bridegroom to be. According to an old Galloway custom, a maiden pulled a handful of grass when she first saw the new moon. While she pulled she repeated the rhyme-- "New moon, new moon, tell me if you can, Gif I have a hair like the hair o' my gudeman."