[The Fountains and Elements.] French Folk Traditions.
According to an old and still very widespread belief, acts performed on the very waters of fountains, or in their immediate vicinity, can modify the course of the elements, and especially cause rain and storms. (…) In 1661, [a] historian from Dauphiné, [stated the following]: "When it was excessively hot, the peoples flocked to the edges of a fountain located in the parish of E. ; there, the old men and the matrons chose a young and maiden girl, among all the most virtuous and the purest; then the young girl, stripped of her clothes and naked in her shirt, while the whole people were in prayer, immersed herself in the bosom of the fountain and purified her basin of all the filthy matter which troubled the limpidity of the water until it became crystalline again. Scarcely had the waters begun to reflect the beauty of the azure sky, when the storm rumbled on the horizon, and soon abundant rains came to quench the earth's thirst."
(in Sebillot, Freshwaters, 'The power of the Fountains'.)













