Relating to Wells.

35

Chap. 5.]

vior alludes to this practice, when on “ die last day, that great day of diefeast, he stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me,and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of hisbelly shall flow rivers of living waters,” John, vii, 37. One of the fivesolemn festivals of the people of Pegu, is ‘ the feast of water,’ duringwhich, ‘ the king, nobles and all the people throw water upon one another.’Ovington’s Voy. to Surat . 1689. 597. The superstitiouS veneration for wells,induced the ancients to erect temples near, and sometimes over them; asthe fountain of Apollo, near the temple of Jupiter Ammon; the wellZemzem in the temple of Meeca, &c. In accordanee with this prevailingcustom, we find the prophet Joel speaks of a fountain which should comeforth out of the house of tJie Lord, and water the valley. iii, 18.. Andwhen Jeroboam built a temple, that the ten tribes might not be obliged togo to Jerusalem to worship, and there be seduced f'rom him, Josephus teils us, that he built it by the fountains of the lesser Jordan. Antiq. viii,cap. 8. In the temple of Isis, at Pompeii , the ‘ sacred well’ has beenfound. Pompeii , i, 277, 279.

The ancient custom of enclosing wells in religious edifices was adoptedby both Christians and Mahommedans. Among the latter it is still con-tinued, and it is not altogether abandoned by the former.

“ This afternoon,” says Fryer, speaking of one of the mosques in India ,“ their sanctum sanctorum was open, the priest entering in barefoot, andprostrating himself on one of the mats spread on the floor, whither I mustnot have gone, could his authority have kept me out. The walls werewhite and clean but plain, only the commandments wrote in Arabic at thewest end, were hung overa table in an arched place, where the priest ex-pounds, on an aseent of seven Steps, railed at top with stone very hand-somely. Underneath are fine cool vaults, and stone stairs to descend to adeep tank.”

As it was formerly death to a Christian who entered a mosque, we 1 shalladd a more recent instance. In 1831, Mr. St. John disguised himself,like Burckhardt , in the costume of a native, and visited the mosques ofCairo . In that of Sultan Hassan, he observes, “ ascending a long flightof Steps, and passing under a magnificent doorwäy, we entered the Vesti-büle, and proceeded towards the most sacred, portion of the edifice, where,on stepping over a small railing, it was necessary to täke offour babooshes,or red Turkish shoes. Here We beheld a spacious square court, pavedwith marble of various colors, fancifully arranged, with a beautiful oc-tagonal marble fountain in the centre.” Egypt and Mohammed Ali, ii, 338.It is the same in Persia . Tavern. Trav. Lon. 1678. 29. The templesof India says Sonnerat, have a sacred tank, deified by the Brahmins.The figures of gods are sometimes thrown 1 into a tank or well.’ Voy. i,111, 132. In old times, churches were removed from other buildings,and were surrounded with Courts, in the centre of which there werefountains, where people washed before güing to prayers. Moreri Die. Inone of the old churches at Upsal, is an ancient well, that had formerlybeen famous ‘for its miraculous eures.’ Woden’s well is still shownin the same city. It was in the vicinity of the old temple of that greatnorthern deity. De la Mortraye’s Trav. ii, 262. Van Braam noticed awell in one of the large temples of China . Journ. ii, 224. ‘ Sacred

springs,’ are mentioned by Juvenal. 3 Sat. 30. Pliny speaks of fountainsand Wells of water as very ‘ wholesome and proper for the eure of manydiseases;’ to which, he says, there is ascribed some divine power, inso-much that they give names to sundry gods and goddesses, xxxi, 2. The.Celts venerated lakes, rivers, and fountains, into which they threw gold.