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In tokene of that storie thei don thus. Twyes eech yeer water cometh fro the See in to the temple. And not prestes only bryngen it, but al Surrye and Arabye; and fro beyonden Eufrate gon manye men to the See and bryngen alle watre, that anon thei scheden out in the temple, and thanne it goth adoun in to that hole; and al be it that the hole is smal, natheles it taketh inne gret plentee of water. And in doynge thus thei seyn that Deucalioun made suche ordeynaunce for the seyntuarye in memorie of that tribulacioun and that benefice.Further details of this rite are given in ¢. 48. Frazer's note on Pausanias l.c. compares an Athenian Hydrophoria connected with the memory of the flood; also the annual water-pouring in the Temple at Jerusalem on the Feast of Tabernacles. The performance was not simply commemorative; the offering at Athens of meal and honey was chthonic, and so was the water-pouring there (Cleidemus in Athenaeus 5, p. 410a). At Hieropolis the object was to quell evil spirits, according to Melito. “But touching Nebo, which is in Mabug, why should I write to you; for lo! all the priests which are in Mabug know that it is the image of Orpheus, a Thracian Magus. And Hadran (i.e. Hadaranes, a double of Hadad) is the image of Zaradusht, a Persian Magus, because both of these Magi practised Magism to a well which is in a wood in Mabug, in which was an unclean spirit, and it committed violence and attacked the passage of every one who was passing by in all that place in which now the fortress of Mabug is located; and these same Magi charged Simi, the daughter of Hadad (cf. c. 33), that she should draw water froin the sea, and cast it into the well, in order that the spirits should not come up,” etc. (Cureton, Spicil, Syr. 44 sq.) Early modern travellers have seen seawater poured into a brook (Baudissin, Studien, ii, p. 181), and it is perhaps significant that nowadays the Jans are angry if water is spilled on the hearth (Baldensperger, Jmmovable East, p. 85). Cf. Baudissin, p. 437, 3. a Now that is the olde aunciene storie amonges hem touching to the temple.
