_WISHING AND CURSING WELLS._ Oracular wells inhabited by spirits gifted with powers of divination—The Baladana _Kund_—Prospects of the harvest divined by the holy well in Askot—Bread and pins as instruments of divination—The Amorgos well—The presiding power of the well of St. Michael—News of absent friends given by a Cornish well—Two Wishing wells in Walsingham Chapel—The Fairy Well in Cornwall—Ceremonial observances taught by the priestess of Gulval Well—Cursing wells—Varied virtues of Holy wells—The Well of St. Keyne—Strange traditions 71-75 CHAPTER XI. _MALEFICENT WATER-GOBLINS._ Water-goblins infesting ill-omened streams and wells—Water-spirits in India regarded as friendly dispensers of life and fertility—Western folklore abounds in blood-thirsty water-demons—Some mischievous water-spirits of India—Fallen souls—A haunted vav in Vadhwan—The _Bhainsasura_ or buffalo-demon—The _Jaté Buddi_ and _Jakh_ of Bengal—The “cups of the fairies”—A wicked class of water-nymphs—The Greek water-nymphs—The Sirens—The Nereids—The Black Giant and the Drakos—Superstitions concerning drowning—Black’s explanation in “Folk Medicine”—Prevalence of the superstition in Scotland—No trace of it in India—Confusion of two distinct ideas 76-83 CHAPTER XII. _RIVER WRAITHS._ The River of Death—Indian water-furies easily propitiated—Continental water-deities demand human sacrifices—Peg O’Nell—Peg Powler—Blood-thirsty Dee—The saying about St. John the Baptist—Victims demanded by the German rivers on Midsummer Day—Lord of the Wells—In the Australian theory of disease and death none more prominent than the water-spirit—A Macedonian ballad of a Haunted Well—Maleficent deities responsible for floods—Various modes of pacifying the furies—The Nizam’s offering to the Musi—Floods caused by offence given to patron saints of water—The sea-spirits more powerful but less exacting that the river-wraiths—The _Narali Purnima_ or Cocoanut Day 84-91 CHAPTER XIII. _WHO WERE THE WATER-DEMONS?_ Race-origin of the _Devas_ or demons of old—Max Müller’s theory—Myths of malignant spirits connected with traditions of hostile races—Sir Laurence Gomme’s examination of the mythic influence of a conquered race—Bombay beliefs—Other Indian parallels—The Moondahs and the Kathodis—The origin of the pixies—Examination of Parsi beliefs in Mahomedan guardian-spirits of wells—A plea for local research 92-96 CHAPTER XIV. _ANALYSIS OF THE BRITISH CULTS._