Gomme’s analysis—Table showing the effect of incoming civilisations—Garland-dressing, pins and rag bushes—Variants of one primitive form of rag-offering—Arguments in favour of a megalithic date for well-worship and rag-offerings 97-100 PART III. VARIED RITUALS AND OFFERINGS. CHAPTER XV. _WATER-DIVINING AND WELL-OPENING CEREMONIES._ Jewish song of the well—Selection of suitable sites for wells—Water-diviners—An extraordinary incident of the Gallipoli campaign—Ceremonies connected with the digging of wells 102-108 CHAPTER XVI. _DECORATIONS AND OFFERINGS._ Indian methods of venerating wells—Human sacrifices—Animal sacrifices—Ceremonies demonstrably non-Aryan in India in original non-Aryan in Europe—A Whitsuntide custom—Lamb, a votive thank-offering—The Ram Feast at Holne—Substitutes for animal victims—Curious explanation for offerings of coins 109-113 CHAPTER XVII. _RAG WELLS AND PIN WELLS._ Rag wells and Pin wells of Great Britain—Their geographical distribution—Henderson’s explanation of the cult—Theory put forward by Sir John Rhys—Sir Laurence Gomme’s examination of the theory—Other authorities—Use of wool in hanging up rags 114-120 CHAPTER XVIII. _A MISUNDERSTOOD INDIAN CUSTOM._ Indian custom of hoisting flags near shrines and sacred trees—A practice quite distinct from rag-offering—How European folklorists are misled—Confusion of flags and rags—The flag is offered only and solely as a thank-offering or as a mark of respect—How the rag came to be regarded as a vehicle of disease—An explanation of two conflicting theories 121-127 CHAPTER XIX. _ANIMAL DEITIES OF WATER._ European belief in the presence of animals or fish as the presiding spirits of water—These animal gods imperfectly represented in the waters of the East—The Nags or semi-divine beings, half men and half serpents—Frogs and trouts and worms and flies as guardian-spirits of wells in Europe—A pair of enchanted trout—A medicinal spring and its presiding worm—Another presiding genius in the semblance of a fly—Divine life of water believed to reside in the sacred fish—Foundation of the cult the same everywhere—Difference only in forms and rituals 128-131 ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. Floating of lamps during the Kartik _Bath_. 2. Parsis on the sea-beach in Bombay. 3. Offerings to the Gunbow Well. 4. Ganga Mâi. 5. Marjan Vidhi: Washing away of sins with the changing of the sacred thread. 6. Ocean-worship. 7. Narali Purnima. INTRODUCTION.