Chapter I: Front Matter

FOLKLORE OF WELLS

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._

Worship of cabined spirits on full moon eve—Goat-sacrifice
on marriage days—Practice of besmearing the forehead
with the blood of the victim—Non-Aryan cults imbibed
by the Aryans—Hindu and Parsi beliefs in water-spirits
compared—Antiquity of water-worship among the Parsis—Worship
of _Ardevi Sura Anahita_—Influence of the _genii locorum_ on
the community—Mahomedan patron saints of Parsi household—An
anthropological puzzle—Ecstatic possession of a Parsi woman—The
Gunbow well—_Murgha Bâwâ’s_ well—Cures effected by the grace of
water-saints—Beliefs common to the whole world—Association of
life with motion—Water-worship in the East has its counterpart
in the history of Western thought—Professor Robertson Smith’s
description of the worship prevailing in Arabia—Well-worship in
the West probably more widespread and primitive than in the East 18-26

PART II. WATER-WORSHIP IN EAST AND WEST.