"They all speak the Irish language, and among them is a trace of
that government by chiefs, which in former times prevailed in
Ireland: the present chief or king of Inniskea is an intelligent
peasant called CAIN, whose authority is acknowledged, and the
settlement of all disputes is referred to his decision. Though
nominally Roman Catholics, these islanders have no priest resident
among them; they know nothing of the tenets of that church, and
their worship consists in occasional meetings at their chief's
house, with visits to a holy well called _Derivla_. The absence of
religion is supplied by the open practice of pagan idolatry. In
the south island a stone idol called in the Irish _Neevougi_, has
been from time immemorial religiously preserved and worshipped.
This god resembles in appearance a thick roll of homespun flannel,
which arises from the custom of dedicating to it a dress of that
material whenever its aid is sought; this is sewed on by an old
woman, its priestess. Of the early history of this idol no
authentic information can be procured, but its power is believed
to be immense; they pray to it in time of sickness, it is invoked
when a storm is desired to dash some hapless ship upon their
coast, and again it is solicited to calm the waves to admit of the
islanders fishing or visiting the main land."--_Ib._ pp. 53, 54.
This statement, irrespective of graver reflections, is suggestive of
curious inquiry, whether this point of Ireland, on the utmost western
verge of Europe, be not the last spot in Christendom in which a trace
can now be found of stone-pillar worship?--the most ancient of all forms
of idolatry known to the records of the human race; and the most widely
extended, since at one time or another it has prevailed in every nation
of the old world, from the shores of Lapland to the confines of India;
and, I apprehend, vestiges of its former existence are to be traced on
the continent of America.
Before men discovered the use of metals, or the method of cutting rocks,
they worshipped unhewn stones; and if the authenticity of Sanchoniathon
is to be accepted, they consecrated pillars to the _fire_ and the _wind_
before they had learned to hunt, to fish, or to harden bricks in the
sun. (Sanchon. in Cory's _Ancient Fragments_, pp. 7, 8.) From _Chna_,
"the first Phoenician" as he is called by the same remote authority, the
Canaanites acquired the practice of stone-pillar worship, which
prevailed amongst them long before:
"Jacob took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it
up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it and called the
name of the place Bethel, saying, this stone which I have set up
for a pillar shall be _God's house_."--Gen. xxviii. 18. 22.
The Israelites were repeatedly ordered to destroy these stone idols of
the Canaanites, to overthrow their altars, and "break their pillars"
(Deut. vii. 5.; xii. 3.). And when the Jews themselves, in their
aberrations, were tempted to imitate their customs, Moses points a
sarcasm at their delusion:--
"Where are their gods; their _rock_ in whom they trusted! How
should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight,
except their _rock_ had sold them?"--_Ib._ xxxii. 30. 37.
From Jacob's consecration of his stone pillar, and the name _Bethel_
which he conferred upon it (which, in Phoenician, signified _the house
of God_), were derived the Bætylia, Βαιτύλια or Βαιτύλοι,
the black stones worshipped in Syria and Asia Minor, in
Egypt, and in Greece before the time of Cecrops, under the names of
Cybele and of Saturn, who is fabled to have swallowed one of them when
he intended to have devoured his son Jupiter. Even in the refined period
of Grecian philosophy, the common people could not divest themselves of
the influence of the ancient belief; and Theophrastus gives it as the
characteristic of the "superstitious man," that he could not resist the
impulse to bow to these mysterious stones, which served to mark the
confluence of the highways. From Asia Minor pillar worship was carried
to Italy and Gaul, and eventually extended to Germany, where the trunks
of trees occasionally became the substitute for stone. From the same
original the Arabs borrowed the Kaaba, the black stone, which is still
revered at Mecca; and the Brahmans a more repulsive form, under which
the worship now exists in Hindostan. Even in early times the reverence
of these stones took a variety of forms as they were applied to mark the
burial-place of saints and persons of distinction, to define contested
boundaries, and to commemorate great events (vide Joshua iv. 5.; xxiv.
26.); and perhaps many of the stones which have now a traditional, and
even historical celebrity in Great Britain, such as the "Lia Fail" of
Tara, the great "Stone of Scoon," on which the Scottish kings were
crowned; the "King's Stone" in Surrey, which served a similar office to
the Saxons; the "Charter Stone" of Inverness; the "Leper's Stone" of
Ayr; the "Blue Stone" of Carrick; the "Black Stone" of Iona, and others,
may have acquired their later respect from their earlier sanctity.
There appear to be few countries in the old world which do not possess
some monuments of this most remote idolatry; but there is none in which
they would seem to be so abundant as on the western extremity of Europe,
in Cornwall, and especially in the islands and promontories from the
Land's End to Caithness and the Orkneys. In the latter the worship of
stone pillars continued to so recent a period, that one is curious to
know when it actually disappeared, and whether there still exist traces
of it in any other locality, similar to that pointed out by the Earl of
Roden at Inniskea.
My own acquaintance with the subject is very imperfect; but, so far as
my recollection serves, the following references may direct attention to
interesting quarters.
Scheffer, who published his _Description of Lapland_ in 1673, states
that the practice of stone-pillar worship then existed there, and that
_Storjunkar_, one of the deities of Scandinavian mythology, was--
"Represented by a stone. Neither do they use any art in polishing
it; but take it as they find it upon the banks of lakes and
rivers. In this shape they worship it as his image, and call it
_Kied kie jubmal_, that is, _the stone god_."--Scheffer,
_Lapponia_. Engl. London, 1751.
He adds that they select the unhewn stone, because it is in the form in
which it was shaped by the hand of the Creator himself. The incident
suggests a curious coincidence with the expressions of Isaiah (ch. lvii.
v. 6.):
"Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they
are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink-offering; thou
hast offered a meat-offering. Should I receive comfort in these?"
Joshua, too, selected the twelve stones with which he commemorated the
passage of the Jordan from the midst of the river, where the priests'
feet stood when they bore the ark across.
Martin, in his account of the Western Islands of Scotland in 1703 A.D.,
describes repeatedly the numerous pillar-stones which were then objects
of respect in the several localities. And in one instance he states that
an image which was held in veneration in one of the islands was _swathed
in flannel_,--a practice which would thus seem to have served as a
precedent for the priestess of Inniskea, as detailed by Lord Roden. In
speaking of the island of Eriska, to the north of Barra, Martin says--
"There is a stone set up, near a mile to the south of St.
Columbus's church, about eight foot high and two broad. It is
called by the natives the _bowing stone_; for when the inhabitants
had the first sight of the church, they set up this stone, and
then bowed, and said the Lord's Prayer."--_A Description of the
Western Islands_, p. 88.
But Borlase, who notices this passage in his _Antiquities of Cornwall_,
gives a much more learned derivation of the name. He says:
"They call them _bowing stones_, as it seems to me, from the
reverence shown them; for the _Even Maschith_, which the Jews were
forbade to worship--(Leviticus xxvi. 1. '_neither shall ye set up
any image of stone_')--signifies really a _bowing stone_, and was
doubtless so called because worshipped by the
Canaanites."--Borlase, _Antiquities of Cornwall_, book iii. c. 2.
I fancy the word which Martin rendered a _bowing stone_, is _cromlech_,
or _crom liagh_.
As regards the ancient monuments of stone worship in Cornwall, the most
learned and the most ample information is contained in Borlase's
_Antiquities_ of that county; but there their worship ceased, though not
till several centuries after the introduction of Christianity. Borlase
says:
"After Christianity took place, many continued to worship these
stones; coming thither with lighted torches, and praying for
safety and success: and this custom we can trace through the fifth
and sixth centuries; and even into the seventh, as will appear
from the prohibitions of several Councils."--Borlase, _Antiq.
Corn._, b. iii. c. ii. p. 162.
In all parts of Ireland these stone pillars are to be found in
comparative frequency. Accounts of them will be found in _The Ancient
and Present State of the County Down_, A.D. 1744; in Wakeman's _Handbook
of Irish Antiquities_, and in various similar authorities. A writer in
the _Archæologia_ for A.D. 1800 says that many of the stone crosses
which form so interesting and beautiful a feature in Irish antiquities
were originally pagan pillar-stones, on which the cross was sculptured
subsequent to the introduction of Christianity, in order that--
"The common people, who were not easily to be diverted from their
superstitious reverence for these stones, might pay a kind of
justifiable adoration to them when thus appropriated to the use of
Christian memorials by the sign of the cross."--_Archæol._ vol.
xiii. p. 208.
The tenacity of the Irish people to this ancient superstition is
established by the fact of its continuance to the present day in the
sequestered island of Inniskea. And it seems to me that it would be an
object of curious inquiry, if your correspondents could ascertain
whether this be the last remnant of pillar worship now remaining in
Europe; and especially whether any further trace of it is to be found in
any other portion of the British dominions.