The unlucky spout at the Tron

A visitor to Glasgow in 1801 found a crowd, mostly women, waiting their turn at a big public pump near the Tron church. The pump had two spouts, front and back, worked by the same handle from the same well, but the back spout was kept plugged and nobody would draw from it. People believed, and had handed down from father to son, that water from the hinder spout was unlucky and poisonous, and that tasting it was certain death. Because it was never used, a fur gathered in it, so the water ran foul when anyone let it through, which only confirmed the belief, though the magistrates had the well cleaned and the workings of the pump explained.