1 ^'>. 



Mooney.] -«-«-/ -j [April 15, 



is sometimes performed by proxy, or by the invalid after recovery in 

 accordance vfith a vow made during his illness. In the latter case, he is 

 generally accompanied by a friend, who goes through the same exercises. 

 The sanitary part consists of immersion, shower baths — where the water 

 falls over a rock — rubbing and drinking the water. The operation is gene- 

 rally repeated on three, sometimes on seven or nine consecutive mornings, 

 while the patient is still fasting. The religious part consists of the repe- 

 tition of a number of prayers, usually the Our Father and Hail Mary, or 

 the two combined in the rosary. While reciting these prayers the patient 

 walks or is led around the well a certain number of times, always follow- 

 ing the course of the sun. The circuit is frequently made upon the knees, 

 and in every case the pilgrimage is undertaken and carried out in a spirit 

 of deep religious fervor. 



The wells are visited at all seasons of the year, but the favorite time is 

 the day consecrated to the patron saint of the well. In some cases a re- 

 markable phenomenon takes place at a certain hour, and is awaited by the 

 people as the signal for entering the water. Thus St. John's well, a noted 

 well at Kilcarty, in the County Meath, is visited on St. John's eve — June 

 23, or midsummer eve, the great fire festival of ancient and modern Ire- 

 land. Just at midnight a mist rises from the surface of the water, on see- 

 ing which those in waiting begin the circuit around the well. A similar 

 phenomenon is related of Lough Ee-Cinlaan, a small "blessed lough" 

 near Kenmare, in the County Kerry, which is also visited on St. John's 

 eve and the following day. At a certain hour three "tussocks" of float- 

 ing grass in the middle of the lough begin to move around in a circle, 

 upon which the people waiting on the bank go down into the water. 

 Compare this with the Bible account of the pool of Bethesda, which 

 was surrounded by five porches. "In these lay a great multitude of im- 

 potent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 

 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled 

 the water. Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped 

 in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."* In each case the re- 

 markable appearance is doubtless owing to the same causes which govern 

 the periodic movements of geysers and other intermittent springs. 



In the lough just mentioned, one of the three tussocks always moves 

 around in the rear of the other two, which, like everything else in Ire- 

 land, is accounted for by a legend. They formerly moved along abreast, 

 until one day a sacrilegious wretch attempted to mow the grass for his 

 own use The moment he struck his scythe into the first tussock, blood 

 followed, as from a living thing, and dyed the waters of the lake. Terri- 

 fied at the sight, he desisted from his purpose, but ever since the Avounded 

 tussock has limped behind its fellows. 



A brief extract from a recent Irish letter, written in reply to some ques- 

 tions concerning the blessed wells of the County Galway, will give a 



John V : 3, 4. 



