scattered remains support the assertion, such as the "holy well" in a wall to the south of the town, the Blood Spring, between the Tor and Chalice Hill, the Chapel of St. James, now a cottage, on the hill called Bove Town, and the remains, or rather the site, of the Chapel of St. Bridget of Beckary, not far from Pons Periculosus. Had all these places their guardians in pagan times, who enacted the gruesome ritual fight with the newcomer, and are the Christian chapels late erections on ancient sacred sites? Of Pons Periculosus and the Blood Spring we may guess as much with a practical certainty, because the latter is so closely connected with the local legends of the Grail, which is said to have tinged its water red with the Blood of Christ as It dripped from the Chalice. It is a ferruginous spring, and the bright red deposit of iron which the water leaves doubtless gave rise to the legend; but, situated as it is on the slopes of the Tor and the confines of the town, it is at least possible to hazard a conjecture as to its original purpose.
It is impossible here not to mention the tree-shaded fountain by which, in the German poem of Lanzelet, Lancelot fights and kills the father of his wife—that Iblis who corresponds in name to Malory's Elaine of Corbenic. The likeness to the Owain fight is obvious, and suggests that here, too, we are hot on the track of a misunderstood ritual. It would take too long to examine details; but since the fountain or ford-fight is also an adventure of Perceval or Peredwr, since it is connected with Balin and the Lit Merveil and Perilous Bridge, need we doubt the kinship of the stories? And this makes me think that one or two other elements have entered into the legend, which seem to have escaped attention.
Even before reading Miss Weston's last book I had noticed the affinities between the Grail story and the worship of Mithras, to which she draws attention. I had also noticed points which seemed similar in the Mithras cult, and in certain Grecian mysteries. I looked eagerly through From Ritual to Romance for remarks on the Dionysiac and Orphic ceremonies, only to be disappointed; and I looked, also in vain, for notices of the initiations at the sanctuary of Trophonios. The tree-shaded
