FOLKLORE OF WELLS [Illustration: Floating of lamps during the Kartik Bath.] FOLKLORE OF WELLS BEING A STUDY OF WATER-WORSHIP IN EAST AND WEST BY R. P. MASANI, M.A. BOMBAY: D. B. TARAPOREVALA SONS & Co. 1918 Printed by B. Miller, Superintendent, British India Press, Bombay. Published by D. B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Introduction Pages xvii to xxvi. PART I. FOLKLORE OF BOMBAY WELLS. CHAPTER I. _SANCTITY OF WATER._ Origin of fevers—Wrath of Shiva—Story of Ekānterio, the malaria fiend—Closing of wells—Protests based on religious sentiments and supernatural beliefs—Scriptural injunctions for the use of well water—Opinions of Parsi scholars—Some Hindu beliefs and usages—Ceremonies requiring water drawn from seven wells—Lighting of lamps in the niches in wells—The unwashed sect of the Jains—Aversion to bathing—The days of the Drymais 1-8 CHAPTER II. _WATER SAINTS._ Spirits dwelling in wells—Disasters brought on by pent-up spirits—The fortunes of the Edwardes Theatre—Mysterious collapse of barriers—The sacred well of Alice Building—Propitiated well-spirits avert accidents—Story of two sisters—Oracular well of Ghoga Street—Midnight and midday visits to wells—Ceremony of divination at St. Oswall’s well 9-13 CHAPTER III. _PENALTY FOR DEFILEMENT._ The labourer who spat on the pavement of an oracular well—Fate of an European girl who offended the saintly spirit of Loveji Castle—Acts of defilement, whether conscious or unconscious, offend the spirits—The Nowroji Wadia house tragedy—A Damascus custom—Destruction of the land of Logres—Concerts of the nymphs—“The pure one” fountain of Egypt—An Esthonian belief—A curious variant of the belief concerning defilement—Deliberate pollution of wells so as to constrain the rain-god—Albiruni’s interrogatories—Doctrine of negation of knowledge 14-17 CHAPTER IV. _QUAINT PARSI BELIEFS._