for his healing.  In modern times the saint, but occasionally the well itself, is prayed to.[645] Then he drank of the waters, bathed in them, or laved his limbs or sores, probably attended by the priestess of the well.  Having paid her dues, he made an offering to the divinity of the well, and affixed the bandage or part of his clothing to the well or a tree near by, that through it he might be in continuous rapport with the healing influences.  Ritual formulae probably accompanied these acts, but otherwise no word was spoken, and the patient must not look back on leaving the well.  Special times, Beltane, Midsummer, or August 1st, were favourable for such visits,[646] and where a patient was too ill to present himself at the well, another might perform the ritual for him.[647]

The rag or clothing hung on the tree seems to connect the spirit of the tree with that of the well, and tree and well are often found together.  But sometimes it is thrown into the well, just as the Gaulish villagers of S. Gregory’s day threw offerings of cloth and wool into a sacred lake.[648] The rag is even now regarded in the light of an offering, and such offerings, varying from valuable articles of clothing to mere rags, are still hung on sacred trees by the folk.  It thus probably has always had a sacrificial aspect in the ritual of the well, but as magic and religion constantly blend, it had also its magical aspect.  The rag, once in contact with the patient, transferred his disease to the tree, or, being still subtly connected with him, through it the healing properties passed over to him.

The offering thrown into the well—­a pin, coin, etc., may also have this double aspect.  The sore is often pricked or rubbed with the pin as if to transfer the disease to the well, and if picked up by another person, the disease may pass to him.  This is also true of the coin.[649] But other examples show the sacrificial nature of the pin or other trifle, which is probably symbolic or a survival of a more costly offering.  In some cases it is thought that those who do not leave it at the well from which they have drunk will die of thirst, and where a coin is offered it is often supposed to disappear, being taken by the spirit of the well.[650] The coin has clearly the nature of an offering, and sometimes it must be of gold or silver, while the antiquity of the custom on Celtic ground is seen by the classical descriptions of the coins glittering in the pool of Clitumnus and of the “gold of Toulouse” hid in sacred tanks.[651] It is also an old and widespread belief that all water belongs to some divine or monstrous guardian, who will not part with any of it without a quid pro quo.  In many cases the two rites of rag and pin are not both used, and this may show that originally they had the same purpose—­magical or sacrificial, or perhaps both.  Other sacrifices were also made—­an animal, food, or an ex voto, the last occurring even in late survivals as at S. Thenew’s Well, Glasgow, where even in the eighteenth century tin cut to represent the diseased member was placed on the tree, or at S. Winifred’s Well in Wales, where crutches were left.