ABSTRACT
Ancient Japanese storytellers reveled in springlore. They thought springs were guarded by kappa, curious creatures with webbed feet, duckbills, and concave heads. The Romans were masters of aqueducts and springlore. Springs and springlore flourished with Native Americans in both North and South America. The English brought both their folklore and springlore to the New World with them. A 1698 London book dealing with springlore lists “ten springs in the British colonies,” which were “all out as good as Epsom”. Folklore comes from the soil, springlore from the water. Springlore has a permanent place in our lores and lives. The queen of the springs, however, was farther west, on the “Great Buffalo Trail,” used since prehistoric times, traversed first by buffalo, then by frontier families moving west. In 1674 Pierre Perrault published On the Origins of Springs, launching the modern scientific inquiry that became known as hydrology, which is still popular three centuries later.
