Strange traditions are not wanting, says Mr. Colin Bennett,[38] to account for the wonderful state in which these wells are preserved. It is impossible to remove the stones of the well of St. Cleer, which is situated near Liskeard. True, they may be carted away at daytime, but they all return at night and deposit themselves in heaps on the site from which they were taken. Similar stories are related of the marvellous powers of the basin which catches the water as it issues from the spring at St. Nun’e Well, Pelynt, near Looe and of the Bisland Holy Well the ground surrounding which can never be broken for tillage on penalty of disaster to the family of the person attempting to do so. CHAPTER XI. MALEFICENT WATER-GOBLINS. So far we have met beneficent spirits of the divine sea and blessed springs and wells. Let us not forget that there are also maleficent deities and mischievous water-goblins infesting ill-omened streams and wells. In India where the lives and fortunes of cattle and people alike hang on the precarious seasonal rainfall, the water-spirits are as a rule regarded as friendly dispensers of life and fertility. Even the sea-gods are on the whole beneficent beings. The _Darya-Pirs_ of the Luvanas (merchants) and Kharvas (sailors) are devoid of mischief and are regarded as patron saints. Elsewhere, however, the perils of the deep and rapid rivers and treacherous pools gave the water-spirits a bad name and their fury emphasized the need for propitiating them with sacrifices. Thus it comes to pass that western folklore abounds in blood-thirsty water-demons who are very often conceived as hideous serpents or dragons. But, as we have already noticed, people of India also have their mischievous water-sprites, the _Mâtâs_ and _Shankhinies_ who haunt wayside wells and either drown or enterthe persons of those who go near their wells. These ghosts and goblins—_bhuts_ and _prets_—are known as _Jalachar_, _i.e._, living in water, as contrasted with _Bhuchar_, those hovering on the earth. One has to propitiate these malignant deities and spirits. It is believed that most of the demons haunting wells and tanks are the spirits of those who have met death by drowning. There are also the spirits of those who die of accidents before the fulfilment of their worldly desires or the souls of the deceased who do not receive the funeral _pindas_ with the proper obsequies. These fallen souls in their _avagati_ or degraded condition reside near the scene of their death and molest those who approach the water. There is a _vav_ called _Nilkanth vav_ near Movaiya, in which a _Pinjari_ (a female cotton carder) is said to have been drowned and to have been turned into a ghost, in which form she occasionally presents herself to the people.