Blair Collection > Popular tales of the West Highlands > Volume 2

I 3 4 WEST HIGHLAND TALES.
version clearly belongs to the Gaelic language, for the speech of
the frog is an imitation of the gurgling and quarking of spring
frogs in a pond, which I have vainly endeavoured to convey to an
English reader by English letters ; but which is absurdly like,
when repeated in Gaelic with this intention. The persevering,
obstinate repetition of the same sounds, is also exceedingly like
the habit of frogs, when disturbed, but not much frightened.
Let any one try the experiment of throwing a stone into the
midst of a frog concert, and he will hear the songsters, after a
moment of stillness, begin again. First a half-smothered c4uaek
auARK ; then another begins, half under water, with a gurgle,
and then more and more join in till the pond is in full chorus once
again. Guark, ouark, gooilIì...-s.^,^^ oooark gooill^^x^,^-
Holy healing wells are common all over the Highlands ; and
people still leave offerings of pins and nails, and bits of rag,
though few would confess it. There is a well in Islay where I
myself have, after drinking, deposited copper caps amongst a
hoard of pins and buttons, and similar gear, placed in chinks in
the rocks and trees at the edge of the " Witches' Well." There is
another well with similar offerings, freshly placed beside it in an
island in Loch Maree, in Ross-shire ; and similar wells are to be
found in many other places in Scotland. For example, I learn
irom Sutherland, that " a well in the black Isle of Cromarty, near
Rosehaugh, has miraculous healing powers. A country woman
tells me, that about forty years ago, she remembers it being sur-
rounded by a crowd of people every first Tuesday in June, who
bathed or drank of it before sunrise. Each patient tied a string
or rag to one of the trees that overhung it before leaving. It was
sovereign for headaches. Mr remembers to have seen a
well here called Mary's Well, hung round with votive rags."
Well worship is mentioned by Martin. The custom in his
day, in the Hebrides, was to walk south about round the well.
Sir William Betham in his Gael and Cymbiri (Dublin : W.
Curry jun. & Co., 1834), .says at page 235, "The CeltaB were
much addicted to the worship of fountains and rivers as divinities.
They had a deity called Divona, or the river god."
Divona Celtarum lingua fons addite Divii (Ausonius.J
He quotes from "The Book of Armagh, a MS. of the seventh cen-
tury," — "And he (St. Patrick) came to Finn Maige,^\\\\c\\ is called