not deep. the iron hoop above the mouth has carried ribbons for so long the stone beneath it is faintly stained in seven colours. red for fever, yellow for sleep, green for the heart's small troubles, blue for grief, brown for the ear, black for the back, white for what cannot be said.
once visited by pilgrims from three counties. now visited by the lane's two villages and, on bad-luck mornings, by farmhands from further off. the woman who keeps the hoop in repair was taught by a woman who was taught by a woman.
the water is ordinary. the cure is not in the water but in the tying. one must say what the ribbon is for, aloud, only once, and never to the same person twice. an unsaid cure works on nothing.
field-note · the white ribbons outnumber all the others by about three to one. the keeper does not count them.
chalk-water · iron-tasting · apothecary · ribbon · folklore