CHAPTER LV. 
Illustrations of Indian Antiquities and Arts* 
One of the most pleasing of primeval customs, was the respect paid to springs of watef. 
Arising in the first wants and best impulses of our nature, it was cherished in warm climates, 
and at length became fostered in all. The “ worship of fountains” is still prevalent through¬ 
out the eastern hemisphere. It is not obsolete in Great Britain and Ireland; for people “src 
there yet found presenting annual offerings to them, just as the ancient worship of fir h , in 
some districts, ignorantly kept up. 
Early incorporated, with other pagan superstitions, into the Christian church, strenuous 
efforts were made to abolish it; for in Europe, as in Asia, it was universal. Miraculous cures, 
as well as quenching thirst, were ascribed to certain fonts, and hence arose throughout Chris¬ 
tendom swarms of “holy wells,” of which numbers have not yet, in popular estimation, lost 
their virtue. Reverence to them was carried to an idolatrous excess. 
In the tenth century a schism took place in Persia among the Armenians; one party was 
accused of despising “ the holy well of Yagarscriebat.” In the reigns of Canute and Edgar, 
edicts were issued in England prohibiting well-worship. Hereward, the Saxon hero, witnessed 
his hostess invoking the spirit of a fountain in her garden. In the last century, persons in 
Scotland performed pilgrimages to wells ; and in England they were decorated with wreaths 
and flowers, hymns were sung over them, and even reading portions of the Gospel was a part 
of the ceremonies. Some critics, says Hearne, observe that what is translated “will worship” in 
Colossians ii, 23, should be well-worship. The Hindoos, Chinese, Moors, and Mahommedans, 
have their sacred wells. The people of Algiers sacrifice fowls to certain fountains. But to 
what extent these figure in sacred and classical history, every reader is familiar. 
It is an interesting fact, that in the New World as in the old one, untutored man was moved 
by the same principle of gratitude to express his thankfulness for water; and as he knew not 
to whom he was indebted, lie also imagined spirits presided over fountains, and to them made 
what he supposed Avere acceptable acknowledgments. While the motive that animated him was 
the same that influenced his species elservhere, his manifestations of it Avere different. He is 
not known to have polluted his offerings Avith blood. 
So keenly alive to the importance of the fluid in agriculture AA-ere the semi-civilized people of 
Central America, Peru, Mexico, and NeAv Mexico, that it is A r ery probable, had they been left to 
Avork out their destiny undisturbed by white men, fountains of Avater would have played as 
prominent a part in their mythology as they did in that of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. An 
example of the homage paid by the red race to genii of fountains, is furnished in the sacred 
spring of the Zunis, represented on plate 37. 
This basin of fine Avater is located near the table-land, on a branch of the river Zuni, betAveen 
the ruins of Ojo Pescado and the present pueblo of Zuni. It is between seven and eight feet in 
diameter, and around it a low circular wall, from fifteen to twenty feet across, has been raised. 
The spring is cleared out every year, Avhen an offering is made to the spirit of the font, of one 
or more tvater-pots , which are placed on the A\ r all. A dozen or more Avhole ones Avere observed, 
while fragments abounded. Some of the remaining vases are reputed to have been offered 
centuries ago by the pueblo caciques. Specimens were brought aAvay, (see next plate,) notwith¬ 
standing the tradition that whoever abstracted one would be struck by lightning. As the 
0 By Thomas Ewbank. 
