FOOTPRINTS IN ROME
In the fork where a cross-road called the Via Ardeatina branches off
from the Appian Way, is a little homely church with the strange name
of "Domine quo Vadis." It is associated with one of the most beautiful
legends of the early Christian Church touchingly told by St. Ambrose.
The Apostle Peter, fleeing from the persecution under Nero that arose
after the burning of Rome, came to this spot; and there he saw a
vision of the Saviour bearing His cross with His face steadfastly set
to go to the city. Filled with wonder and awe, the Apostle exclaimed,
"Domine quo Vadis," Lord, whither goest thou? To which the Saviour
replied, turning upon Peter the old look of mournful pity when he
denied Him in the High Priest's palace at Jerusalem, "Venio Roman
iterum crucifigi," I go to Rome to be crucified a second time--and
then disappeared. Peter regarding this vision as an indication of his
Lord's mind, that he ought not to separate himself from the fortunes
of his fellow-Christians, immediately turned back to the city, and met
with unflinching courage the martyr's death on the yellow sands of
Montorio; being crucified with his head downwards, for he said he was
not worthy to die in the same way as his Master. This legend has been
made the subject of artistic treatment by Michael Angelo, whose famous
statue of our Lord as He appeared in the incident to St. Peter is in
the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, and was for many years a
favourite object of worship, until superseded by the predominant
worship of Mary. A cast of this statue stands on the floor in front of
the altar in the church of Domine quo Vadis. It represents our Lord in
the character of a pilgrim, with a long cross in His hand, and an
eager onward look in His face and attitude. It is very simple and
impressive, and tells the story very effectually. Besides this plaster
statue of the Saviour, a circular stone is placed about the centre of
the building, surrounded by a low wooden railing, containing the
prints of two feet side by side, impressed upon its surface, as if a
person had stopped short on a journey. These are said to be the
miraculous prints of the Saviour's feet on the pavement of the road
when He appeared to Peter; but like the copy of Michael Angelo's
statue, this slab is a facsimile, the original stone being preserved
among the relics of the neighbouring basilica of St. Sebastian.
Unwilling as one is to disturb a legend so beautiful, and with so
touching a moral, there can be no doubt that it was an after-thought
to account for the footprints; for the material on which they are
impressed being white marble, proves conclusively that the slab could
never have formed part of the pavement of the Appian Way, which it is
well known was composed of an unusually hard lava, found in a quarry
near the tomb of Cæcilia Metella; and the distinct marks of the chisel
which the impressions bear--for I examined the original footprints
very carefully some years ago--indicate a very earthly origin indeed.
The traditional relic in all probability belonged to the early
subterranean cemetery--leading by a door out of the left aisle of the
church of St. Sebastian, to which the name of Catacomb was originally
applied.
Slabs with footprints carved upon them are by no means rare in Rome.
In the Kircherian Museum, in the room devoted to early Christian
antiquities, there is a square slab of white marble with two pairs of
footprints elegantly incised upon it, pointed in opposite directions,
as if produced by a person going and returning, or by two persons
crossing each other. There is no record from what catacomb this
sepulchral slab was taken. We have descriptions of other relics of the
same kind from the Roman Catacombs,--such as a marble slab bearing
upon it the mark of the sole of a foot, with the words "In Deo"
incised upon it at the one end, and at the other an inscription in
Greek meaning "Januaria in God"; and a slab with a pair of footprints
carved on it covered with sandals, well executed, which was placed by
a devoted husband over the loculus or tomb of his wife. Impressions of
feet shod with shoes or sandals are much rarer than those of bare
feet; and a pair of feet is a more customary representation than a
single foot, which, when carved, is usually in profile. In a dark,
half-subterranean chapel, green with damp, belonging to the church of
St. Christina in the town of Bolsena, on the great Volscian Mere of
Macaulay, there is a stone let into the front of the altar, and
protected by an iron grating, on which is rudely impressed a pair of
misshapen feet very like those in the church of St. Sebastian at Rome.
In the lower church at Assisi there is a duplicate of these
footprints. The legend connected with them says that they were
produced by the feet of a Christian lady named Christina, living in
the neighbourhood in pagan times, who was thrown into the adjoining
lake by her persecutors, with a large flat stone attached to her body.
Instead of sinking her, the stone formed a raft which floated her in a
standing attitude safely to the opposite shore, where she
landed--leaving the prints of her feet upon the stone as an
incontestable proof of the reality of the miracle. The altar with
which the slab is engrafted--with a stone _baldacchino_ over it--I may
mention, was the scene of the famous miracle of Bolsena, when a
Bohemian priest, officiating here in 1263, was cured of his sceptical
doubts regarding the reality of transubstantiation by the sudden
appearance of drops of blood on the Host which he had just
consecrated--an incident which formed the subject of Raphael's
well-known picture in the Vatican, and in connection with which Pope
Urban IV. instituted the festival of Corpus Christi. On the Lucanian
coast, near the little fishing town of Agrapoli, not far from Pæstum,
there is shown on the limestone rock the print of a foot which is said
by the inhabitants to have been made by the Apostle Paul, who lingered
here on his way to Rome. In the famous church of Radegonde at
Poitiers, dedicated to the queen of Clothaire I.--who afterwards took
the veil, and was distinguished for her piety--there is shown on a
white marble slab a well-defined footmark, which is called "Le pas de
Dieu," and is said to indicate the spot where the Saviour appeared to
the tutelary saint of the place. Near the altar of the church of St.
Genaro de Poveri in Naples, Mary's foot is shown suspended in a glazed
frame. In the middle of the footprint there is an oval figure with the
old initials of mother, water, matter. The footprint of Mary is very
common in churches in Italy and Spain, where it is highly venerated.
The significance of these footmarks has been the subject of much
controversy. Some have regarded them as symbols of possession--the
word "possession" being supposed to be etymologically derived from the
Latin words _pedis positio_, and meaning literally the position of the
foot. The adage of the ancient jurists was, "Quicquid pes tuus
calcaverit tuum erit." The symbol of a foot was carved on the marble
slab that closed the _loculus_ or tomb, to indicate that it was the
purchased property of the person who reposed in it. This view,
however, has not been generally received with favour by the most
competent authorities. A more plausible theory is that which regards
the sepulchral footmarks in the Catacombs as votive offerings of
gratitude, ordered by Christians to be made in commemoration of the
completion of their earthly pilgrimage. It was a common pagan custom
for persons who had recovered from disease or injury, to hang up as
thankofferings in the shrines of the gods who were supposed to have
healed them, images or representations, moulded in metal, clay, or
wood, of the part that had been affected. In Italy, votive tablets
were dedicated to Iris and Hygiea on which footmarks were engraved;
and Hygiea received on one occasion tributes of this kind which
recorded the gratitude of some Roman soldiers who escaped the
amputation which was inflicted upon their comrades by Hannibal. This
custom survived in the early Christian Church, and is still kept up,
as any one who visits a modern shrine of pilgrimage in Roman Catholic
countries can testify. Among such votive offerings, models and carved
and painted representations of feet in stone, or wood, or metal, are
frequently suspended before the image of the Madonna, in gratitude for
recovery from some disease of the feet. We may suppose that as the
ancient Romans, when they returned safely from some long and dangerous
or difficult journey undertaken for business or health, dedicated in
gratitude a representation of their feet to their favourite god--so
the early Christians, who in their original condition were pagans, and
still cherished many of their old customs, ordered these peculiar
footmarks to be made upon their graves, in token of thankfulness that
for them the pilgrimage of life was over, and the endless rest begun.
There can be little doubt that the slab with the so-called footprints
of St. Christina on it at Bolsena, already alluded to, was a pagan
ex-votive offering; for the altar on which it is engrafted occupies
the site of one anciently dedicated to Apollo, and the legend of St.
Christina gradually crystallised around it. And the footprint in the
church of Radegonde at Poitiers was more likely pagan than Christian,
for Poitiers had a Roman origin, and numerous Roman remains have been
found in the town and neighbourhood.
A long and curious list might be made of the miraculous impressions
said to have been left by our Saviour's feet on the places where He
stood. In the centre of the platform at Jerusalem on which the Temple
of Solomon stood, covered by the dome of the Sakrah Mosque, a portion
of the rough natural limestone rock rises several feet above the
marble pavement, and is the principal object of veneration in the
place. It has an excavated chamber in one corner, with an aperture
through the rocky roof, which has given to the rock the name of "lapis
pertusus," or perforated stone. On this rock there are natural or
artificial marks, which the successors of the Caliph Omar believed to
be the prints of the angel Gabriel's fingers, and the mark of
Mohammed's foot, and that of his camel, which performed the whole
journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in four bounds. The stone, it is said,
originally fell from heaven, and was used as a seat by the venerable
prophets of Jerusalem. So long as they enjoyed the gift of prophecy,
the stone remained steady under them; but when the gift was withdrawn,
and the persecuted seers were compelled to flee for safety to other
lands, the stone rose to accompany them: whereupon the angel Gabriel
interposed, and prevented the departure of the prophetical chair,
leaving on it indelibly the marks of his fingers. It was then
supernaturally nailed to its rocky bed by seven brass nails. When any
great crisis in the world's fortunes happens, the head of one of these
nails disappears; and when they are all gone, the day of judgment will
come. There are now only three left, and therefore the Mohammedans
believe that the end of all things is not far off. When the Crusaders
took possession of the sacred city, they altered the Mohammedan
legend, and attributed the mysterious footprint to our Lord when He
went out of the Temple to escape the fury of the Jews. There can be no
doubt that the marks on the rock are prehistoric, and belong to the
primitive worship of Mount Moriah, long before the august associations
of Biblical history gathered around it. To this spot the Jews used to
come in the fourth century and wail over the rock, and _anoint it
with oil_, as if carrying out some dim tradition of former primitive
libations.
In the Octagon Chapel of the Church of the Ascension on the top of the
Mount of Olives, so well known for the magnificent view which it
commands of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, is shown the native rock which
forms the summit of the hill from which our Lord ascended into heaven.
On this rock, it is said by tradition, He left the mark of His
footsteps. Arculf, who visited Palestine about the year 700, says: "On
the ground in the midst of the church are to be seen the last prints
in the dust of our Lord's feet, and the roof appears above where He
ascended; and although the earth is daily carried away by believers,
yet still it remains as before, and retains the same impression of the
feet." Jerome mentions that in his time the same custom was observed,
followed by the same singular result. Later writers, however, asserted
that the impressions were made, not in the ground, or in the dust, but
on the solid rock; and that originally there were two, one of them
having been stolen long ago by the Mohammedans, who broke off the
fragment of stone on which it was stamped. Sir John Mandeville
describes the appearance of the surviving footmark as it looked in his
day, 1322: "From that mount our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven
on Ascension Day, and yet there appears the impress of His left foot
in the stone." What is now seen in the place is a simple rude cavity
in the natural rock, which bears but the slightest resemblance to the
human foot. It may have been artificially sculptured, or it may be
only one of those curious hollows into which limestone rocks are
frequently weathered. In either case it naturally lent itself to the
sacred legend that has gathered around it.
In the Kaaba, the most ancient and remarkable building of the great
Mosque at Mecca, is preserved a miraculous stone with the print of
Abraham's feet impressed upon it. It is said, by Mohammedan
tradition, to be the identical stone which served the patriarch as a
scaffold when he helped Ishmael to rebuild the Kaaba, which had been
originally constructed by Seth, and was afterwards destroyed by the
Deluge. While Abraham stood upon this stone, it rose and sank with him
as he built the walls of the sacred edifice. The relic is said to be a
fragment of the same gray Mecca stone of which the whole building is
constructed,--in this respect differing from the famous black stone
brought to Abraham and Ishmael by the angel Gabriel, and built into
the north-east corner of the exterior wall of the Kaaba, which is said
by scientific men to be either a meteorite or fragment of volcanic
basalt. It is popularly supposed to have been originally a jacinth of
dazzling whiteness, but to have been made black as ink by the touch of
sinful man, and that it can only recover its original purity and
brilliancy at the day of judgment. The millions of kisses and touches
impressed by the faithful have worn the surface considerably; but in
addition to this, traces of cup-shaped hollows have been observed on
it. There can be no doubt that both these relics associated with
Abraham are of high antiquity, and may have belonged to the
prehistoric worship which marked Mecca as a sacred site, long before
the followers of the Prophet had set up their shrine there. In the
sacred Mosque of Hebron, built over the cave of Machpelah, is pointed
out a footprint of the ordinary size on a slab of stone, variously
called that of Adam or of Mohammed. It is said to have been brought
from Mecca some six hundred years ago, and is enclosed in a recess at
the back of the shrine of Abraham, where it is placed on a sort of
shelf about three feet above the floor. On the margin of the tank, in
the court of the ruined mosque at Baalbec, there are shown four giant
footmarks, which are supposed to have been impressed by some patriarch
or prophet, but are more likely to have been connected with the
ancient religion of Canaan, which lingered here to the latest days of
Roman paganism. In the great Druse shrine of Neby Schaib near Hattin
there is a square block of limestone in the centre of which is a piece
of alabaster containing the imprint of a human foot of natural size,
with the toes very clearly defined. The Druses reverently kiss this
impression, asserting that the rock exudes moisture, and that it is
never dry. There is a split in the rock across the centre of the
footprint, which they account for by saying that when the prophet
stepped here he split the rock with his tread. In Damascus there was
at one time a sacred building called the Mosque of the Holy Foot, in
which there was a stone having upon it the print of the feet of Moses.
Ibn Batuta saw this curious relic early in the fourteenth century; but
both the mosque and the stone have since disappeared. On the eastern
side of the Jordan a Bedouin tribe, called the Adwân, worship the
print left on a stone by the roadside by a prophetess while mounting
her camel, in order to proceed on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The Kadriyeh
dervishes of Egypt adore a gigantic shoe, as an emblem of the sacred
foot of the founder of their sect; and near Madura, a large leather
shoe is offered in worship to a deity that, like Diana, presides over
the chase.
To the student of comparative religion the Phrabat, or Sacred Foot of
Buddha, opens up a most interesting field of investigation. In the
East, impressions of the feet of this wonderful person are as common
as those of Christ and the Virgin Mary in the West. Buddhists are
continually increasing the number by copies of the originals; and
native painters of Siam who are ambitious of distinction often present
these sacred objects to the king, adorned with the highest skill of
their art, as the most acceptable gift they can offer. The sacred
footprint enters into the very essence of the Buddhist religion; it
claims from the Indo-Chinese nations a degree of veneration scarcely
yielding to that which they pay to Buddha himself. It is very ancient,
and was framed to embody in one grand symbol a complete system of
theology and theogony, which has been gradually forgotten or perverted
by succeeding ages to the purposes of a ridiculous superstition. It is
elaborately carved and painted with numerous symbols, each of which
has a profound significance. The liturgy of the Siamese connected with
it consists of fifty measured lines of eight syllables each, and
contains the names of a hundred and eight distinct symbolical
objects,--such as the lion, the elephant, the sun and moon in their
cars drawn by oxen, the horse, the serpents, the spiral building, the
tree, the six spheres, the five lakes, and the altar--all of which are
represented on the foot. This list of symbolical allusions is recited
by the priests, and forms an essential part of the ritual of worship.
The Siamese priests say that any mortal about to arrive at the
threshold of Nivána has his feet emblazoned spontaneously with all the
symbols to be seen on the Phrabat.
The Siamese acknowledge only five genuine Phrabats made by the actual
feet of Buddha. They are called the Five Impressions of the Divine
Foot. The first is on a rock on the coast of the peninsula of Malacca,
where, beside the mark of Buddha's foot, there is also one of a dog's
foot, which is much venerated by the natives. The second Phrabat is on
the Golden Mountain, the hill with the holy footstep of Buddha, in
Siam, which Buddha visited on one occasion. The impression is that of
the right foot, and is covered with a maradop, a pyramidal canopy
supported by gilded pilasters. The hollow of the footstep is generally
filled with water, which the devotee sprinkles over his body to wash
away the stain of his sin. The third Phrabat is on a hill on the banks
of the Jumna, in the midst of an extensive and deep forest, which
spreads over broken ranges of hills. The Phrabat is on a raised
terrace, like that on which most of the Buddhist temples are built.
The pyramidal structure which shelters it is of hewn stone ninety feet
high, and is like the _baldacchino_ of a Roman Catholic church. There
are four impressions on different terraces, each rising above the
other, corresponding to the four descents of the deity. The fourth
Phrabat is also on the banks of the Jumna. But the fifth and most
celebrated of all is the print of the sacred foot on the top of the
Amala Sri Pada, or Adam's Peak, in Ceylon. On the highest point of
this hill there is a pagoda-like building, supported on slender
pillars, and open on every side to the winds. Underneath this canopy,
in the centre of a huge mass of gneiss and hornblende, forming the
living rock, there is the rude outline of a gigantic foot about five
feet long, and of proportionate breadth.
Sir Emerson Tennent, who has given a full and interesting account of
this last Phrabat in his work on Ceylon, supposes that it was
originally a natural hollow in the rock, afterwards artificially
enlarged and shaped into its present appearance; but whatever may have
been its origin at first, its present shape is undoubtedly of great,
perhaps prehistoric, antiquity. In the sacred books of the Buddhists
it is referred to, upwards of three hundred years before Christ, as
the impression left of Buddha's foot when he visited the earth after
the Deluge, with gifts and blessings for his worshippers; and in the
first century of the Christian era it is recorded that a king of
Cashmere went on a pilgrimage to Ceylon for the express purpose of
adoring this _Sri-pada_, or Sacred Footprint. The Gnostics of the
first Christian centuries attributed it to Ieu, the first man; and in
one of the oldest manuscripts in existence, now in the British
Museum--the Coptic version of the "Faithful Wisdom," said to have been
written by the great Gnostic philosopher Valentinus in the fourth
century--there is mention made of this venerable relic, the Saviour
being said to inform the Virgin Mary that He has appointed the Spirit
Kalapataraoth as guardian over it. From the Gnostics the Mohammedans
received the tradition; for they believe that when Adam was expelled
from Paradise he lived many years on this mountain alone, before he
was reunited to Eve on Mount Arafath, which overhangs Mecca. The early
Portuguese settlers in the island attributed the sacred footprint to
St. Thomas, who is said by tradition to have preached the Gospel,
after the ascension of Christ, in Persia and India, and to have
suffered martyrdom at Malabar, where he founded the Christian Church,
which still goes by the name of the Christians of St. Thomas; and they
believed that all the trees on the mountain, and for half a league
round about its base, bent their crowns in the direction of this
sacred object--a mark of respect which they affirmed could only be
offered to the footstep of an apostle. The Brahmins have appropriated
the sacred mark as the footprint of their goddess Siva. At the present
day the Buddhists are the guardians of the shrine; but the worshippers
of other creeds are not prevented from paying their homage at it, and
they meet in peace and goodwill around the object of their common
adoration. By this circumstance the Christian visitor is reminded of
the sacred footprint, already alluded to, on the rock of the Church of
the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, which is part of a mosque, and
has five altars for the Greek, Latin, Armenian, Syrian, and Coptic
Churches, all of whom climb the hill on Ascension Day to celebrate the
festival; the Mohammedans, too, coming in and offering their prayers
at the same shrine. The worship paid on the mountain of the sacred
foot in Ceylon consists of offerings of the crimson flowers of the
rhododendron, which grow freely among the crags around, accompanied by
various genuflections and shoutings, and concluding with the striking
of an ancient bell, and a draught from the sacred well which springs
up a little below the summit. These ceremonies point to a very
primitive mode of worship; and it is probable that, as Adam's Peak was
venerated from a remote antiquity by the aborigines of Ceylon, being
connected by them with the worship of the sun, the sacred footprint
may belong to this prehistoric cult. Models of the footprint are shown
in various temples in Ceylon.
Besides these five great Phrabats, there are others of inferior
celebrity in the East. In the P'hra Pathom of the Siamese, Buddha is
said to have left impressions of his feet at Lauca and Chakravan. At
Ava there is a Phrabat near Prome which is supposed to be a type of
the creation. Another is seen in the same country on a large rock
lying amidst the hills a day's journey west of Meinbu. Dr. Leyden says
that it is in the country of the Lan that all the celebrated founders
of the religion of Buddha are reported to have left their most
remarkable vestiges. The traces of the sacred foot are sparingly
scattered over Pegu, Ava, and Arracan. But among the Lan they are
concentrated; and thither devotees repair to worship at the sacred
steps of Pra Kukuson, Pra Konnakan, Pra Puttakatsop, and Pra
Samutacadam.
The footsteps of Vishnu are also frequent in India. Sir William Jones
tells us that in the Puranas mention is made of a white mountain on
which King Sravana sat meditating on the divine foot of Vishnu at the
station Trevirana. When the Hindoos entered into possession of
Gayá--one of the four most sacred places of Buddhism--they found the
popular feeling in favour of the sacred footprint there so strong that
they were obliged to incorporate the relic into their own religious
system, and to attribute it to Vishnu. Thousands of Hindoo pilgrims
from all parts of India now visit the shrine every year. Indeed to the
worshippers of Vishnu the Temple of Vishnupad at Gayá is one of the
most holy in all India; and as we are informed in the great work of
Dr. Mitra, the later religious books earnestly enjoin that no one
should fail, at least once in his lifetime, to visit the spot. They
commend the wish for numerous offspring on the ground that, out of the
many, one son might visit Gayá, and by performing the rites prescribed
in connection with the holy footstep, rescue his father from eternal
destruction. The stone is a large hemispherical block of granite, with
an uneven top, bearing the carvings of two human feet. The frequent
washings which it daily undergoes have worn out the peculiar
sectorial marks which the feet contain, and even the outlines of the
feet themselves are but dimly perceptible. English architects are now
engaged in preserving the ruins of the splendid temple associated with
this footprint, where the ministry of India's great teacher--the
"Light of Asia"--began. In the Indian Museum at Calcutta there is a
large slab of white marble bearing the figure of a human foot
surrounded by two dragons. It was brought from a temple in Burmah,
where it used to be worshipped as a representation of Buddha's foot.
It is seven inches long and three inches broad, and is divided into a
hundred and eight compartments, each of which contains a different
mystical mark.
At Gangautri, on the banks of the Ganges, is a wooden temple
containing a footprint of Ganga on a black stone. In a strange
subterranean temple, inside the great fort at Allahabad, there are two
footprints of Vishnu, along with footprints of Rama, and of his wife
Sita. In India the "kaddam rassul," or supposed impression of
Mohammed's foot in clay, which is kept moist, and enclosed in a sort
of cage, is not unfrequently placed at the head of the gravestones of
the followers of Islam. On the summit of a mountain one hundred and
thirty-six miles south of Bhagalpur is one of the principal places of
Jain worship in India. On the table-land are twenty small Jain temples
on different craggy heights, which resemble an extinguisher in shape.
In each of them is to be found the Vasu Padukas--a sacred foot similar
to that which is seen in the Jain temple at Champanagar. The sect of
the Jain in South Bihar has two places of pilgrimage. One is a tank
choked with weeds and lotus-flowers, which has a small island in the
centre containing a temple, with two stones in the interior, on one of
which is an inscription and the impression of the two feet of
Gautama--the most common object of worship of the Jains in this
district. The other is the place in the same part of the country where
the body of Mahavira, one of the twenty-four lawgivers, was burnt
about six centuries before Christ. It resembles the other temple, and
is situated in an island in a tank. The island is terraced round, and
in the cavity of the beehive-like top there is the representation of
Mahavira's feet, to which crowds of pilgrims are continually flocking.
In the centre of the Jain temple at Puri, where this remarkable man
died, there are also three representations of his feet, and one
impression of the feet of each of his eleven disciples.
But the subject of footprints carries us farther back than the ages of
the great historic founders of religion. In almost every part of the
earth footprints have been found, cut in the solid rock or impressed
upon boulders and other stones. These artificial tracks, like the
strange human footprint which Robinson Crusoe discovered on the beach
of his lonely island, excite the imagination by their mystery, and
open up a vista into a hitherto unexplored world of infinite
suggestion. They seem the natural successors of those tracks of birds
and reptiles on sandstone and other slabs which form one of the most
interesting features in every geological museum; the material on which
they are impressed having allowed the substantial forms of the
creatures themselves to disappear, while it has carefully preserved
the more shadowy and incidental memorials of their life. The
naturalist can tell us from the ephemeral impressions on the soft
primeval mud, not only what was the true nature of the obscure
creatures that produced them untold ages ago, but also the direction
in which they were moving along the shore, and the state of the tide
and the weather, and the appearance of the country at the time. But
regarding those literal human "footprints on the sands of time," which
have been left behind by our prehistoric ancestors, we can make no
such accurate scientific inductions. They have given rise to much
speculation, being considered by many persons to be real impressions
of human feet, dating from a time when the material on which they were
stamped was still in a state of softness. Superstition has invested
them with a sacred veneration, and legends of a wild and mystical
character have gathered around them. The slightest acquaintance with
the results of geological research has sufficed to dispel this
delusion, and to show that these mysterious marks could not have been
produced by human beings while the rocks were in a state of fusion;
and consequently no intelligent observer now holds this theory of
their origin. But superstition dies hard; and there are persons who,
though confronted with the clearest evidences of science, still refuse
to abandon their old obscurantist ideas. They prefer a supernatural
theory that allows free scope to their fancy and religious instinct,
to one that offers a more prosaic explanation. There is a charm in the
mystery connected with these dim imaginings which they would not wish
dispelled by the clear daylight of scientific knowledge. In our own
country, footmarks on rocks and stones are by no means of unfrequent
occurrence. Some of them, indeed, although associated with myths and
fairy tales, have doubtless been produced by natural causes, being the
mere chance effects of weathering, without any meaning except to a
geologist. But there are others that have been unmistakably produced
by artificial means, and have a human history and significance.
In Scotland Tanist stones--so called from the Gaelic word _tanaiste_,
a chief, or the next heir to an estate--have been frequently found.
These stones were used in connection with the coronation of a king or
the inauguration of a chief. The custom dates from the remotest
antiquity. We see traces of it in the Bible,--as when it is mentioned
that "Abimelech was made king by the oak of the pillar that was in
Shechem"; and "Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the
stone of Zoheleth, which is by En-rogel, and called all his brethren
the king's sons, and all the men of Judah the king's servants"; and
that when Joash was anointed king by Jehoiada, "the king stood by a
pillar, as the manner was"; and again, King Josiah "stood by a
pillar" to make a covenant, "and all the people stood to the
covenant." The stone connected with the ceremony was regarded as the
most sacred attestation of the engagement entered into between the
newly-elected king or chief and his people. It was placed in some
conspicuous position, upon the top of a "moot-hill," or the open-air
place of assembly. Upon it was usually carved an impression of a human
foot; and into this impression, during the ceremony of inauguration,
the king or chief placed his own right foot, in token that he was
installed by right into the possessions of his predecessors, and that
he would walk in their footsteps. It may be said literally, that in
this way the king or chief came to an understanding with his people;
and perhaps the common saying of "stepping into a dead man's shoes"
may have originated from this primitive custom.
The most famous of the Tanist stones is the Coronation-stone in
Westminster Abbey--the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny--on which the
ancient kings of Scotland sat or stood when crowned, and which forms a
singular link of connection between the primitive rites that entered
into the election of a king by the people, and the gorgeous ceremonies
by which the hereditary sovereigns of England are installed into their
high office. There is no footmark, however, on this stone. It may be
mentioned that before the arrival of the Scottish stone there had been
for ages a similar stone at Westminster Hall, which gave the name to
and was the original place of sitting for the Court of King's Bench.
It was no doubt a relic of the primitive Folkmoot of Westminster,
which has developed into the Parliament of England. In the
neighbourhood of Upsala is the Mora stone, celebrated in Swedish
history as the spot where the kings were publicly elected and received
the homage of their subjects.
A more characteristic specimen of a Tanist stone may be seen on the
top of Dun Add, a rocky isolated hill about two hundred feet high, in
Argyleshire, not far from Ardrishaig. On a smooth flat piece of rock
which protrudes above the surface there is carved the mark of a right
foot, covered with the old _cuaran_ or thick stocking, eleven inches
long and four inches and a half broad at the widest part, the heel
being an inch less. It is sunk about half an inch in the rock, and is
very little weather-worn--the reason being, perhaps, that it has been
protected for ages by the turf that has grown over it, and has only
recently been exposed. Quite close to it is a smooth polished basin,
eleven inches in diameter and eight deep, also scooped out of the
rock. With these two curious sculptures is associated a local myth.
Ossian, who lived for a time in the neighbourhood, was one day hunting
on the mountain above Loch Fyne. A stag which his dogs had brought to
bay charged him, and he fled precipitately. Coming to the hill above
Kilmichael, he strode in one step across the valley to the top of
Rudal Hill, from whence he took a gigantic leap to the summit of Dun
Add. But when he alighted he was somewhat exhausted by his great
effort, and fell on his knee, and stretched out his hands to prevent
him from falling backwards. He thereupon left on the rocky top of Dun
Add the enduring impression of his feet and knee which we see at the
present day. This myth is of comparatively recent date, and is
interesting as showing that all recollection of the original use of
the footmark and basin had died away for many ages in the district.
There can be no doubt that the footmark indicates the spot to have
been at one time the scene of the inauguration of the kings or chiefs
of the region; and the basin was in all probability one of those
primitive mortars which were in use for grinding corn long before the
invention of the quern. Dun Add is one of the oldest sites in
Scotland. It has the hoary ruins of a nameless fort, and a well which
is traditionally said to ebb and flow with the tide. It was here that
the Dalriadic Scots first settled; and Captain Thomas, who is an
authority on this subject, supposes that the remarkable relic on Dun
Add was made for the inauguration of Fergus More Mac Erca, the first
king of Dalriada, who died in Scotland at the beginning of the sixth
century, and to have been the exact measure of his foot.
King in his _Munimenta Antiqua_ mentions that in the island of Islay
there was on a mound or hill where the high court of judicature sat, a
large stone fixed, about seven feet square, in which there was a
cavity or deep impression made to receive the feet of Macdonald, who
was crowned King of the Isles standing on this stone, and swore that
he would continue his vassals in the possession of their lands, and do
impartial justice to all his subjects. His father's sword was then put
into his hand, and the Bishop of Argyle and seven priests anointed him
king in presence of all the heads of the tribes in the Isles and
mainland, and at the same time an orator rehearsed a catalogue of his
ancestors. In the year 1831, when a mound locally known as the "Fairy
Knowe," in the parish of Carmylie, Forfarshire, was levelled in the
course of some agricultural improvements in the place, there was
found, besides stone cists and a bronze ring, a rude boulder almost
two tons in weight, on the under side of which was sculptured the mark
of a human foot. The mound or tumulus was in all likelihood a
moot-hill, where justice was dispensed and the chieftains of the
district were elected. In the same county, in the wild recesses of
Glenesk, near Lord Dalhousie's shooting-lodge of Milldam, there is a
rough granite boulder, on the upper surface of which a small human
foot is scooped out with considerable accuracy, showing traces even of
the toes. It is known in the glen as the "Fairy's Footmark." There can
be no doubt that this stone was once used in connection with the
ceremonial of inaugurating a chief.
A similar stone, carved with a representation of two feet, on which
the primitive chiefs stood when publicly invested with the insignia of
office, is still, or was lately, in existence in Ladykirk, at Burwick,
South Ronaldshay, Orkney. A local tradition, that originated long
after the Pictish chiefs passed away, and a new Norse race, ignorant
of the customs of their predecessors, came in, says that the stone in
question was used by St. Magnus as a boat to ferry him over the
Pentland Firth; while an earlier tradition looked upon it as a
miraculous whale which opportunely appeared at the prayer of the saint
when about to be overwhelmed by a storm, and carried him on its back
safely to the shore, where it was converted into a stone, as a
perpetual memorial of the marvellous occurrence. In North Yell,
Shetland, there is a rude stone lying on the hillside, on which is
sculptured with considerable skill the mark of a human foot. It is
known in the district as the "Giant's Step"; another of the same kind,
it is said, being over in Unst. It is undoubtedly the stone on which,
in Celtic times, the native kings of this part were crowned. About a
mile from Keill, near Campbeltown, a very old site, closely connected
with the early ecclesiastical history of Scotland, may be seen on a
rock what is locally called the "Footprint of St. Columba," which he
made when he landed on this shore on one occasion from Iona. It is
very rude and much effaced; but it carries the imagination much
farther back than the days of St. Columba,--when a pagan chief or king
was inaugurated here to rule over the district.
In England and Wales there are several interesting examples of
footprints on boulders and rocks. A remarkable Tanist stone--which,
however, has no carving upon it, I believe--stands, among a number of
other and smaller boulders, on the top of a hill near the village of
Long Compton, in Cumberland. It is called "The King"; and the popular
rhyme of the country people--
"If Long Compton thou canst see,
Then king of England thou shalt be"--
points to the fact that the stone must have been once used as a
coronation-stone. Not far from the top of a hill near Barmouth in
Wales, in the middle of a rough path, may be seen a flat stone, in
which there is a footmark about the natural size, locally known as
"Llan Maria," or Mary's step, because the Virgin Mary once, it is
supposed, put her foot on this rock, and then walked down the hill to
a lower height covered with roots of oak-trees. This impression on the
stone is associated with several stone circles and cromlechs--one of
which bears upon it the reputed marks of Arthur's fingers, and is
called Arthur's Quoit--and with a spring of water and a grove, as the
path leading to the hill is still known by a Welsh name which means
Grove Lane; and these associations undoubtedly indicate that the spot
was once a moot-hill or prehistoric sanctuary, where religious and
inauguration rites were performed. At Smithhill's Hall, near
Bolton-le-Moors, there is still to be seen an object of curiosity to a
large number of visitors--the print of a man's foot in the flagstone.
It is said to have been produced by George Marsh, who suffered
martyrdom during the persecutions of Queen Mary in 1555. When on one
occasion the truth of his words was called in question by his enemies,
he stamped his foot upon the stone on which he stood, which ever after
bore the ineffaceable impression as a miraculous testimony to his
veracity. This story must have been an after-thought, to account for
what we may suppose to have been a prehistoric Tanist stone.
In Ireland footmarks are very numerous, and are attributed by the
peasantry to different saints. Mr. and Mrs. S.C. Hall, in their
account of Ireland, refer to several curious examples which are
regarded by the people with superstitious reverence, and are the
occasions of religious pilgrimage. Near the chapel of Glenfinlough, in
King's County, there is a ridge with a boulder on it called the
Fairy's Stone or the Horseman's Stone, which presents on its flat
surface, besides cup-like hollows, crosses, and other markings,
rudely-carved representations of the human foot. On a stone near
Parsonstown, called Fin's Seat, there are similar impressions--also
associated with crosses and cup-shaped hollows which are traditionally
said to be the marks of Fin Mac Coul's thumb and fingers. On an
exposed and smooth surface of rock on the northern slope of the Clare
Hills, in the townland of Dromandoora, there is the engraved
impression of a foot clothed with a sandal; and near it is sculptured
on the rock a figure resembling the caduceus of Mercury, while there
are two cromlechs in the immediate vicinity. The inauguration-stone of
the Macmahons still exists on the hill of Lech--formerly called
Mullach Leaght, or "hill of the stone"--three miles south of Meaghan;
but the impression of the foot was unfortunately effaced by the owner
of the farm about the year 1809. In the garden of Belmont on the
Greencastle road, about a mile from Londonderry, there is the
famous stone of St. Columba, held in great veneration as the
inauguration-stone of the ancient kings of Aileach, and which St.
Patrick is said to have consecrated with his blessing. On this
remarkable stone, which is about seven feet square, composed of a hard
gneiss, and quite undressed by the chisel, are sculptured two feet,
right and left, about ten inches long each. Boullaye le Gouze mentions
that in 1644 the print of St. Fin Bar's foot might be seen on a stone
in the cemetery of the Cathedral of Cork; it has long since
disappeared.
In the Killarney region is the promontory of Coleman's Eye--so called
after a legendary person who leapt across the stream, and left his
footprints impressed in the solid rock on the other side. These
impressions are considered Druidic, and are pointed out as such to the
curious stranger by the guides. Near an old church situated on the
southern slope of Knockpatrick, in the parish of Graney in Leinster,
there is a large flat granite rock with the impression of two feet
clearly defined on its surface. Local tradition assigns these
footprints to St. Patrick, who addressed the people on this spot, and
left behind these enduring signs of his presence. Allusion is made to
them in St. Fiaca's Hymn to St. Patrick--"He pressed his foot on the
stone; its traces remain, it wears not." Footprints in connection with
St. Patrick are to be found in many localities in Ireland, as, for
instance, on the seashore south of Skerries, County Dublin, where the
apostle landed; and at Skerries, County Antrim, there are marks which
are believed to be the footprints of the angel who appeared to St.
Patrick. In Ossory two localities are noted as possessing St.
Patrick's footprints.
So common are the curious sculptures under consideration in Norway and
Sweden, that they are known by the distinct name of _Fotsulor_, or
Footsoles. They are marks of either naked feet, or of feet shod with
primitive sandals. On a rock at Brygdæa in Westerbotten, in Norway,
there are no less than thirty footmarks carved on a rock at an equal
distance from each other. In other parts of Norway these footprints
are mixed up with rude outlines of ships, wheels, and other
_hällristningar_, or rock-sculptures. Holmberg has figured many of
them in his interesting work entitled _Scandinaviens Hällristningar_.
At Lökeberg Bohnslau, Sweden, there is a group of ten pairs of
footmarks, associated with cup-shaped hollows and ship-carvings; and
at Backa, in the same district, several pairs of feet, or rather
shoe-marks, are engraved upon a rock. In Denmark not a few examples of
artificial foot-tracks have been observed and described by Dr.
Petersen. One was found on a slab belonging to the covering of a
gallery in the inside of a tomb in the island of Seeland, and another
on one of the blocks of stone surrounding a tumulus in the island of
Laaland. In both cases the soles of the feet are represented as being
covered; and in all probability they belong to the late stone or
earlier bronze age. With these sepulchral marks are associated curious
Danish legends, which refer them to real impressions of human feet.
The islands of Denmark were supposed to have been made by enchanters,
who wished for greater facilities for going to and fro, and dropped
them in the sea as stations or stepping-stones on their way; and
hence, in a region where the popular imagination poetises the
commonest material objects, and is saturated with stories of elves and
giants, with magic swords, and treasures guarded by dragons, it was
not difficult to conclude that these mysterious foot-sculptures were
made by the tread of supernatural beings. Near the station of Sens, in
France, there is a curious dolmen, on one of whose upright stones or
props are carved two human feet. And farther north, in Brittany, upon
a block of stone in the barrow or tumulus of Petit Mont at Arzon, may
be seen carved an outline of the soles of two human feet, right and
left, with the impressions of the toes very distinctly cut, like the
marks left by a person walking on the soft sandy shore of the sea.
They are surrounded by a number of waving circular and serpentine
lines exceedingly curious. On Calais pier may be seen a footprint
where Louis XVIII. landed in 1814; and on the rocks of Magdesprung, a
village in the Hartz Mountains, a couple of hundred feet apart, are
two immense footprints, which tradition ascribes to a leap made by a
huge giantess from the clouds for the purpose of rescuing one of her
maidens from the violence of an ancient baron.
In not a few places in our own country and on the Continent, rough
misshapen marks on rocks and stones, bearing a fanciful resemblance to
the outline of the human foot, have been supposed by popular
superstition to have been made by Satan. Every classical student is
familiar with the account which Herodotus gives of the print of
Hercules shown by the Scythians in his day upon a rock near the river
Tyras, the modern Dnieper. It was said to resemble the footstep of a
man, only that it was two cubits long. He will also recall the
description given by the same gossipy writer of the Temple of Perseus
in the Thebaic district of Egypt, in which a sandal worn by the god,
two cubits in length, occasionally made its appearance as a token of
the visit of Perseus to the earth, and a sign of prosperity to the
land. Pythagoras measured similar footprints at Olympia, and
calculated "ex pede Herculem"! Still more famous was the mark on the
volcanic rock on the shore of Lake Regillus--the scene of the
memorable battle in which the Romans, under the dictator Posthumius,
defeated the powerful confederation of the Latin tribes under the
Tarquins. According to tradition, the Roman forces were assisted by
Castor and Pollux, who helped them to achieve their signal victory.
The mark was supposed to have been left by the horse of one of the
great twins "who fought so well for Rome," as Macaulay says in his
spirited ballad. On the way to the famous convent of Monte Casino,
very near the door, there is a cross in the middle of the road. In
front of it a grating covers the mark of a knee, which is said to have
been left in the rock by St. Benedict, when he knelt there to ask a
blessing from heaven before laying the foundation-stone of his
convent. As the site of the monastery was previously occupied by a
temple of Apollo, and a grove sacred to Venus, where the inhabitants
of the surrounding locality worshipped as late as the sixth
century,--to which circumstance Dante alludes,--it is probable that
the sacred mark on the rock may have belonged to the old pagan
idolatry, and have been a cup-marked stone connected with sacrificial
libations.
On many rocks of the United States of America may be seen human
footprints, either isolated or connected with other designs belonging
to the pictorial system of the Aborigines, and commemorating incidents
which they thought worthy of being preserved. In the collection of the
Smithsonian Museum are three large stone slabs having impressions of
the human foot. On two slabs of sandstone, carefully cut from rocks on
the banks of the Missouri, may be seen respectively two impressions of
feet, carved apparently with moccasins, such as are worn at the
present day by the Sioux and other Indians. The other specimen is a
flat boulder of white quartz, obtained in Gasconade County, Missouri,
which bears on one of its sides the mark of a naked foot, each toe
being distinctly scooped out and indicated. The footmark is surrounded
by a number of cup-shaped depressions. In many parts of Dacotah, where
the route is difficult to find, rocks occur with human footprints
carved upon them which were probably meant to serve as geographical
landmarks--as they invariably indicate the best route to some Indian
encampment or to the shallow parts of some deep river. Among other
places these footprints have been met with on the Blue Mountains
between Georgia and North Carolina, and also on the Kenawha River.
Some stir was made two years ago by the reported discovery of the
prints of human feet in a stone quarry on the coast of Lake Managua in
Nicaragua. The footprints are remarkably sharp and distinct; one seems
that of a little child. The stone in which they are impressed is a
spongy volcanic tuff, and the layer superimposed upon them in the
quarry was of similar material. These prehistoric footprints were
doubtless accidentally impressed upon the volcanic stone, and would
seem to throw back the age of man on the earth to a most remote
antiquity. In Equatorial Africa footprints have also been found, and
are associated with the folklore of the country. Stanley, in his _Dark
Continent_, tells us that in the legendary history of Uganda, Kimera,
the third in descent from Ham, was so large and heavy that he made
marks in the rocks wherever he trod. The impression of one of his feet
is shown at Uganda on a rock near the capital, Ulagolla. It was made
by one of his feet slipping while he was in the act of hurling his
spear at an elephant. In the South Sea Islands department of the
British Museum is an impression of a gigantic footstep five feet in
length.
The connection of prehistoric footprints with sacred sites and places
of sepulture would indicate that they had a religious significance--an
idea still further strengthened by the fact of their being frequently
associated with holy wells and groves, and with cup-shaped marks on
cromlechs or sacrificial altars, which are supposed to have been used
for the purpose of receiving libations; while their universal
distribution points to a hoary antiquity, when a primitive natural
cultus spread over the whole earth, traces of which are found in every
land, behind the more elaborate and systematic faith which afterwards
took its place. They are probably among the oldest stone-carvings that
have been left to us, and were executed by rude races with rude
implements either in the later stone or early bronze age. Their
subsequent dedication to holy persons in Christian times was in all
likelihood only a survival of their original sacred use long ages
after the memory of the particular rites and ceremonies connected with
them passed away. A considerable proportion of the sacred marks are
said to be impressions of the female foot, attributed to the Virgin
Mary; and in this circumstance we may perhaps trace a connection with
the worship of the receptive element in nature, which was also a
distinctive feature of primitive religion.
It is strange how traces of this primitive worship of footprints
survive, not merely in the mythical stories and superstitious
practices connected with the objects themselves, but also in curious
rites and customs that at first sight might seem to have had no
connection with them. The throwing of the shoe after a newly-married
couple is said to refer to the primitive mode of marriage by capture;
but there is equal plausibility in referring it to the prehistoric
worship of the footprint as a symbol of the powers of nature. To the
same original source we may perhaps attribute the custom connected
with the Levirate law in the Bible, when the woman took off the shoe
of the kinsman who refused to marry her, whose name should be
afterwards called in Israel "the house of him that hath his shoe
loosed."
In regard to the general subject, it may be said that we can discern
in the primitive adoration of footprints a somewhat advanced stage in
the religious thoughts of man. He has got beyond total unconsciousness
of God, and beyond totemism or the mere worship of natural
objects--trees, streams, stones, animals, etc. He has reached the
conception of a deity who is of a different nature from the objects
around him, and whose place of abode is elsewhere. He worships the
impression of the foot for the sake of the being who left it; and the
impression helps him to realise the presence and to form a picture of
his deity. That deity is not a part of nature, because he can make
nature plastic to his tread, and leave his footmark on the hard rock
as if it were soft mud. He thinks of him as the author and controller
of nature, and for the first time rises to the conception of a
supernatural being.