Stourton.
He beareth S. 6. Swallowes in pile A.
Little Colan hath lesse worth the obseruation, vnlesse you will
deride, or pity, their simplicity, who sought at our Lady Nants
well there, to foreknowe what fortune should betide them, which was
in this maner:
Vpon Palm Sunday, these idle-headed seekers resorted thither,
with a palme crosse in one hand, & an offring [145] in the other:
the offring fell to the Priests share, the Crosse they threwe into
the well; which if it swamme, the party should outliue that yeere;
if it sunk, a short ensuing death was boded: and perhaps,
not altogether vntruely, while a foolish conceyt of this halfening
might the sooner helpe it onwards. A contrary practise to the
goddess Iunoes lake In Laconia: for there, if the wheaten cakes,
cast in vpon her festiuall day, were by the water receiued,
it betokened good luck; if reiected, euill. The like is written
by Pausanias, of Inus in Greece, and by others touching the offrings
throwne into the fornace of mount Etna in Sicill.
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