Myth of the Week · Malta
Il-Belliegħa for kids: the monster in Malta's old wells
· P.Sean Tales
In Malta, every old house and village square used to have its own stone well. And every well, the grandmothers said, had a Belliegħa living at the bottom.
The Belliegħa waits down in the cool dark. It has big round eyes looking up at the circle of light at the top, and its arms are long and thin like bell ropes. If a kid leans too far over the edge, those arms reach up.
Here's the thing though. Nobody in the stories ever actually gets caught. The Belliegħa is there for one reason, so that no kid in Malta ever leans too far over a well. Malta is a dry island and rain is precious, so for thousands of years people cut wells into the soft yellow limestone under their houses. The well was the most important thing a family had, and also the most dangerous thing in the yard for a curious kid. So the well got a monster, and the monster worked better than a fence.
On quiet summer nights a well can make noises. A drip, an echo, a sudden deep splash when nobody threw anything. Old people knew what that was. It was the Belliegħa rolling over in its sleep, and a warning for anyone still out of bed.
Did you know? The name comes from the Maltese word for swallowing. A well that could swallow you up got a monster to do it. In our book the Belliegħa looks more nosy than scary.
Color the legend yourself
The Belliegħa, the old well and the splash in the dark are all in Myths & Legends of Malta, along with Calypso's cave on Gozo and the giants of Ta' Ċenċ.
Or start free: grab the free coloring pages.
You can find it in our book: Myths & Legends of Malta.