There can be no doubt that in the most ancient times magical practices were carried on at wells or at the religious centre of which the well formed a constituent part. Local practices of witchcraft would be a natural survival of these. Gomme (p. 87) thus refers to the well of St. Aelian, not far from Bettws Abergeley, in Denbighshire. “Near the well resided a woman who officiated as a kind of priestess. Anyone who wished to inflict a curse upon an enemy resorted to this priestess, and for a trifling sum she registered, in a book kept for the purpose, the name of the person on whom the curse was wished to fall. A pin was then dropped into the well in the name of the victim, and the curse was complete.” The magical associations with wells appear in the following extract (given by Quiller-Couch, p. 134) of a letter from Dr. O’Connor, the author of the letters of Columbanus, to his brother. “I have often inquired of your tenants what they themselves thought of their pilgrimages to the wells of _Kill-Aracht_, _Tobbar Brighde_, _Tobbar Muir_, near Elphin, _Moor_, near _Castlereagh_, where multitudes annually assembled to celebrate what they, in broken English, termed _Patterns_ (Patron’s days); and when I pressed a very old man, Owen Hester, to state what possible advantage he expected to derive from the singular custom of frequenting in particular such wells as were contiguous to an old blasted oak, _or an upright hewn stone_, and what the meaning was of the yet more singular custom of _sticking rags_ on the branches of such trees and spitting on them, his answer, and the answer of the oldest men, was that their ancestors always did it, and that it was a preservation against _Geasa Draoidecht_, _i.e._, the sorceries of the Druids, and that their cattle were preserved by it from infectious disorders; that the _daoini maithe_, _i.e._, the fairies, were kept in good humour by it; and so thoroughly persuaded were they of the sanctity of these Pagan practices that they would travel bareheaded and barefooted from ten to twenty miles for the purpose of crawling on their knees round these wells, upright stones, and oak trees, westward, as the sun travels, some three times, some six, some nine, and so on in uneven numbers until their voluntary penances were completely fulfilled.” 2. _Wells generally situated near stone monuments or churches which have replaced them._--We find many instances of wells near stone circles and dolmens. It may even be that the existence of the spring determined the position of the circle, for the officiating astronomer-priest must like other mortals have had a water supply available. “Where a spring or a river flows,” says Seneca, “there should we build altars and offer sacrifices” (Hope, p. 47). The following shows how closely connected they were.[58]