as peculiarly binding upon him who took such an oath; in the old Norse
annals it is stated that Gudrun Gjukesdatter offered King Atle that he
would take an oath on the “pure white stone.” The hero Duthmaruno is
said to have sworn by “Loda’s Stone of Power,” which represented the
almighty divinity of the Norsemen.[56]
A sacred well on the north side of Lough Neagh, Ireland, lends peculiar
sanctity to the yellow crystals found in great quantity near by. The
belief in their miraculous quality finds expression in the legend that
they grow up out of the ground on Midsummer Night, and whosoever wishes
to possess them as talismans must pronounce certain magic rhymes in the
act of collecting them. They then become luck-bringers of potent virtue
and ensure the prosperity of the household in which they are
guarded.[57]
The stone, or rather rock, named catlinite, and popularly known as
“pipe-stone,” was regarded by certain tribes as one of their most
valuable materials,[58] and was extensively used for pipe-bowls. In
color it ranges from a deep red to an ashy tint; the chief quarry is
situated some three hundred miles west of the Falls of St. Anthony, on
the dividing ridge between the Saint Peter’s and Missouri rivers. This
region was visited in 1836 by George Catlin, to whom we are indebted for
the preservation of so much regarding Indian folk-lore and customs, and
after whom the substance is named. While it is impossible to determine
with any degree of certainty for how long a time the Indians were
familiar with this material, there are those who believe that the
quarries were worked and the material used for pipe-bowls by native
sculptors long before the earliest notice we have to that effect.[59]
Great skill and patience were displayed by the Indians in the making of
these pipe-bowls, which were sometimes carved with various symbolical
figures. We have an early record of such pipes from the pen of Jacques
Marquette, a Jesuit missionary to the Indians, who saw one when visiting
the Illinois Indians in 1673. He reports it as being of polished red
stone, like marble, so pierced that one orifice served to hold the
tobacco, while the other was fastened on the stem, which was a stick two
feet long, as thick as a common cane and pierced in the middle. The
whole was covered with large feathers of red, green, and other colors.
Catlin states that at the time of his visit the “pipe-stone” quarry was
guarded with a certain religious reverence from the visit of the white
man, the Indians declaring that this red stone was “a part of their
flesh,” and that to take it from them would be to tear out their flesh
and spill their blood. This highly poetic language may or may not have
signified a superstitious reverence for the substance; indeed, it may
simply have voiced the fear of these Indians that they might be
despoiled of what for them was an especially valuable material, which
they asserted had been bestowed upon them by the Great Spirit for the
making of pipes exclusively. In our day an old Ojibway Indian,
especially skilled in the work, has a name signifying “he who makes
pipes,” and carved pipe-bowls of catlinite are usually sold for from $1
to $10 apiece; as much as $20, however, is occasionally paid for a
particularly large and finely carved specimen. This substance is also
worked up into charms and other small ornaments which are sold to
tourists, the annual sales of all descriptions amounting to some $10,000
annually. Catlinite takes a fine polish and is easily worked; a
peculiarly attractive variety is red with white and gray spots.
[Illustration:
HINDU WEARING A COLLECTION OF ANCESTRAL PEBBLES AS AMULETS
]
The popular fancy for the “Fairy Stones” from a peak of the Blue Ridge
Mountains, Patrick County, Virginia, is said to be directly traceable to
the tale, “Trail of the Lonesome Pine,” by John Fox, Jr., who makes one
of these pretty staurolite crystals exercise an important influence over
the destinies of his hero and heroine. This was cleverly utilized by the
manager of a New York theatre, when he gave a souvenir performance of a
dramatized version of the story, by presenting one of these “Fairy
Stones” to each lady in the audience, a gift not only in perfect
_rapport_ with the play, but one highly appreciated by the recipients,
few of whom were not unconsciously influenced by the symbolic
half-religious, half-mythical quality ascribed to this attractive little
gem.
Collections of stones and pebbles, often of little or no intrinsic value
but supposed to possess occult powers, are handed down from father to
son in many Hindu families of the poorer class. The accompanying
illustration shows an aged Hindu, as he appeared to a recent traveller,
decorated with such stones to the number of about three hundred on a
ceremonial occasion. In this case they were all pierced and threaded on
cords, so as to be attached to the person, and the old man proudly
declared that, thousands of years ago, one of his ancestors was a
playmate of the god Krishna, who had bestowed the stones upon him as a
special mark of divine favor.
The presence of erratic boulders was accounted for by popular legend in
a variety of ways. Sometimes it was declared that the Virgin or a saint,
while bearing an enormous stone through the air to be used in the
construction of a church, had learned on the way that the church was
completed and the stone no longer needed, and immediately let it drop to
the earth.[60]
A stone having the rude form of a chair or seat, and known as Canna’s
Stone, enjoyed repute in Wales for its curative powers. It was in a
field in close proximity to the church of Llangan, Carmarthenshire,
which owed its foundation to St. Canna. Near this stone is a well called
Flynon Canna, the waters of which were believed to be a cure for ague.
To make the cure effective, however, the patient, after imbibing the
sacred water, had to sit for a time in Canna’s Stone, and if he dozed
while sitting there this was considered to promise a speedy recovery.
The combined treatment by well and stone was often repeated for several
successive days and was occasionally prolonged for two or three
weeks.[61]
That a child could be cured of disease by being passed through an
aperture in one of the sacred stones that had formed part of a dolmen is
shown in the case of a stone of this kind preserved in the church of
Villers-Saint-Sépulcre, dept. Oise, France. There is another such stone
in the same department, at Trie, used in a like way for the cure of
feeble children or those suffering from rachitis. This reveals in a
striking way the persistence of superstitious beliefs which were already
condemned in 567 A.D. by the council of Tours, which prescribed that the
eucharist should be refused to those who venerated these so-called
sacred stones, and at a still earlier date, in 443 A.D., a council
decree pronounced those bishops guilty of sacrilege who permitted the
making of vows over these stones or the deposition of offerings
thereon.[62]
Some of the stones of the druidic dolmens were called by the French
peasants of a later age _pierres tourniresses_, or “whirling stones,”
for it was solemnly asseverated that at midnight on Christmas Eve these
stones gyrated on their base. A still stranger fancy was that some other
stones of this class became fearfully thirsty at times, once every
hundred days, or perhaps only once in a century, and then rolled off to
the nearest stream to slake their thirst. Under others, again, it was
believed that a hidden treasure reposed, watchfully guarded by a
terrible dragon. However, on one night in the year, while the clock was
striking twelve, he snatched a moment’s sleep, and whoever was clever
enough and quick enough to make use of this chance could acquire untold
riches.[63]
A strange belief prevails in and about Dourges (dept. Aube), France. On
the top of a hill near this place is a chapel built in honor of St.
Estapin, and in close proximity to this chapel are rocks with many
irregular hollows of such varying shapes and forms that almost any part
of the human body can be thrust into the openings. On the 6th of August
in each year, those from the neighborhood suffering from illness or
disability of any kind come hither, and, after having made their way as
best they can nine times around the chapel, proceed to the platform
whereon are the wonder-working stones, and introduce the afflicted part
of their body into the appropriate opening in one of the rocks. The
result is said to be an immediate cure of the trouble, however serious
this may be, one experiment being sufficient.[64]
Stones of peculiar shape or marked color are those to which popular
fancy has most often attributed a certain sanctity or power. Instances
of this may be found in the Scottish isles. Thus, on the island of Arran
in the Firth of Clyde, a green stone of approximately spherical form had
acquired great repute for its healing virtue, especially for those
having pains in the side. When this stone was laid upon the seat of the
trouble, the pain would disappear. This, however, was not the only use
to which it was put, for oaths were taken upon it, proving the presence
of a certain animistic belief in the islanders’ minds, as though some
spirit dwelt in or animated the stone and would take vengeance on a
perjuror. A still better proof of this was the idea that the green stone
of Arran would bring victory to a leader if he bore it with him and cast
it into the enemies’ ranks at the decisive moment of a conflict, as is
said to have been done by the Lord of the Isles. Alongside of this green
stone may be placed a blue stone credited in the Scotch island of Fladda
with the possession of like healing power, and on which also oaths were
taken.[65]
A large, flat stone in St. Andrew’s on the isle of Guernsey is stated to
have borne a somewhat humorously misleading French inscription. This
ran: “Celui qui me tournera, Son temps point ne perdra,” which has been
freely rendered:
To him who turns me up I say
His labor won’t be thrown away.
This tempting promise, interpreted as a sign that some buried treasure
was hidden in the ground beneath the stone, finally induced some one to
devote much toil and time to the difficult task of turning the stone
over. What, however, was his chagrin and disgust when the under side
presented the words: “Tourner je voulais, Car lassée j’étais” (I longed
to turn, because I was so tired). Whether the practical joker who
originated the inscription was present to enjoy the success of his joke
is not revealed.[66]
To a mass of quartz at Jerbourg, Guernsey Island, local fancy has
attached a wild legend, which finds expression in the strange
designation of the stone as “The Devil’s Claw.” The old Chronique de
Normandie, which, although written much earlier, was first printed in
1576 at Rouen, recounts under date of 797 A.D. that Duke Richard, when
on his way from one of his strongholds to a manor where dwelt a damsel
of surpassing beauty, was assailed by the Evil One; but, like a second
St. Michael, Duke Richard overcame his dangerous antagonist. Seeing that
he could not prevail by force, the Devil had recourse to one of his most
perilous wiles, and changed himself into a beautiful, richly attired
maiden. In this disguise he lured Duke Richard to the seashore and
induced him to enter a boat and put out to sea. He thus spirited the
duke away to the lonely isle of Guernsey, and at the landing spot, where
the Devil finally seized his too-confiding prey, stands this mass of
quartz, a deep black splash running right across, indicating in popular
fancy the mark left by the devil’s claws.[67]
A solitary boulder standing on a heath in North Germany is the subject
of a curious legend illustrating the superstitious reverence inspired by
the thunder. Once upon a time a bridal procession was traversing the
heath when a violent thunder-storm broke out. Taking no heed of this,
the musicians who accompanied the procession continued to play their gay
and festive music, and as a punishment for this lack of respect the God
of Thunder changed the whole party into an immense rock.[68]
An erratic boulder lying in midstream in the River Ferse, in West
Prussia, at a bend it makes between Peplin and Eichwald, is known in
legend as the Teuffelsstein (Devil’s Stone). It can only be reached by
swimming to it, the part above the surface of the water measuring 26¼
feet in circumference, the height from the bed of the stream being 8¼
feet. A thick growth of alders on the banks of the Ferse at this point
casts strange and sharp shadows over the gleaming surface of the block
which is a biotitic gneiss. Legend tells that the Devil once tried to
wreck the tower of the church at Peplin by hurling this mass of rock at
it, but just as he had it poised in the air and was about to cast it
forth the church bells began to ring the call for early mass, and he was
forced to let the boulder drop. Another version is that he really threw
it, but that it fell short of its mark.[69]
Near Hasselager in Denmark there is an immense boulder about 150 feet in
circumference and 32 feet in height. Of this stone legend tells that a
witch became so enraged at the fact that the steeple of the church at
Svinninge was used by sailors as a landmark, that she picked up the
stone and hurled it at the church, but missed her aim. As the boulder is
estimated to weigh 1000 tons, this “witch” must have been regarded as a
superhuman personality. The legend seems to indicate that she profited
by the shipwrecks which were only too frequent on this rocky coast, and
grudged the poor sailors the good service rendered them by the prominent
steeple.
A rock in Ardmore Bay, Ireland, is known as the St. Declan Stone, after
the first bishop of Ardmore, who came to Ireland even before the arrival
of the great St. Patrick. This rock is believed by the peasants to be
endowed with great and occult powers, and the legend tells that it was
carried through the air from Rome to its present resting place in the
bay, at the time St. Declan was erecting his church at Ardmore. The fact
that the stone rests upon a number of smaller ones renders it possible
for people to squeeze their way under it at low tide, and those who pass
beneath it three times are believed to have earned the special favor of
St. Declan.[70]
A mass of calcareous stone in a village called Piada de Roland, situated
in the commune of Toufailles (dept. Tarn et Garonne), France, shares
with some other similar stones in this region the curious name of
Roland’s Foot (Piada de Roland). The one preserved in Toufailles
measures 70 cm. × 47 cm. × 50 cm., and bears a natural imprint having
the form of a foot. Legend accounts for this by the tale that the hero
Roland once jumped from this stone to another at Sept Albres and in
taking this tremendous leap thrust his foot down so strongly upon its
support as to leave an imprint on the solid rock. For a time the “Piada
de Roland” was kept in a cow-house—not a remarkably honorable place of
deposit—but after the death of one of the cows a sorcerer advised the
stone should be broken and removed, as a precautionary measure; this is
said to have happened but thirty years ago, showing how deeply rooted
such superstitious ideas are among the peasantry in out-of-the-way parts
of France.[71]
Another rock-imprint, this time simulating that made by the hoof of a
horse, is to be seen toward the edge of the abyss of Padirac (dept.
Lot). Here again a local legend has been evolved to explain the imprint.
We are told that the attention of both Satan and St. Martin had been
powerfully attracted to the region, each strenuously seeking to gain
possession of the souls of those who died, Satan of course wishing to
bear them off with him to the depths of the infernal regions, while St.
Martin cherished the fond hope of bringing them to Heaven. Unhappily the
sins of the inhabitants of the region so much outweighed their merits
that the Devil was almost invariably successful. Once upon a time, when
he was riding off to his lurid realm, bearing with him a sackful of lost
souls, he met St. Martin, who was full of grief at the fact that he
himself had not a single soul to carry heavenward. Knowing, however,
that Satan was passionately fond of gaming, he proposed that they should
play a game the stake of which should be the sackful of souls. Satan
consented, trusting to his powers of trickery, but all his deceptions
proved vain, and the precious souls became the property of the saint.
Enraged at losing the stakes, the Devil stamped on the ground, and an
immense abyss opened up, threatening to engulf St. Martin; however, the
latter put up a prayer to God, and spurred on his steed to a supreme and
successful effort at escape, but one of the hoofs struck the rock with
such force that it made an indentation therein figuring the clear
outlines of a horse’s hoof.[72]
[Illustration:
KILLING A DRAGON TO EXTRACT ITS PRECIOUS STONE
From Johannis de Cuba’s “Ortus Sanitatis,” Strassburg, 1483. See page
16.
]
[Illustration:
NATURALLY MARKED STONE
From Valentini, “Museum museorum,” Frankfurt am Mayn, 1714. Collection
of James I, of England; now in Copenhagen. See page 45.
]
The Kiowa have a sacred stone whose form suggests the head and bust of a
man. This image, called _taimé_, has long been considered a kind of
palladium of the tribe. It is preserved in a box made of stiff dressed
rawhide (_parflèche_) and was only shown once a year, at the annual Sun
Dance. As this sacred dance has not been performed since 1887, the
_taimé_ of the Kiowa has not been viewed by mortal eye since that time,
not even the custodian of the treasure having the privilege of opening
the box, except on the occasion of the ceremonial dance above
mentioned.[73] Whether this stone has been rudely fashioned into its
present shape, or whether its natural form suggested its use as a
simulacrum of some deity, has not been determined; it is evidently not
of meteoric origin as were many of the curiously shaped stones venerated
as images of the gods in ancient times, in both Europe and Asia.
In the rock of St. Gowan’s chapel in Wales was a natural cavity upon
which the name of the Expanding Stone was bestowed by popular tradition,
because the strange fancy prevailed that this stone automatically
adapted itself to the size of anyone who entered the cavity. The legend
ran that once, during the Pagan persecutions, when a fugitive Christian,
hotly pursued, reached this rock it opened up of its own accord so that
he could slip into it, and then closed about him so as to hide him
effectually from his enemies. This Expanding Stone was believed to
manifest its magic power by bringing to pass the wish expressed by
anyone who entered it, provided he did not change his wish while he
turned around within it.[74]
The natives of the French colony of New Caledonia in the southern
Pacific, attach special importance to the fortuitous shape of stones in
using them for talismans or amulets. According to their form such stones
are considered to procure favorable effects against famine, madness, or
death; to induce sunshine or rain, or else to bring good luck in fishing
or in sailing, each special use being suggested by some different form,
the color also being in some cases a determining factor. For the purpose
of securing a better yield from fruit-trees a stone having the
approximate shape of the fruit or with markings similar to those on
fruit or tree is the one indicated by nature as the appropriate
talisman, as in the case of the cocoanut palm, where a stone marked with
black lines is the one chosen. Sometimes two different talismanic stones
are used in this practice, a smaller one figuring the unripe fruit; when
the tree begins to bear, the small stone is buried at its foot, and as
soon as the fruit begins to mature, the small stone is removed and the
larger one, representing the ripe fruit, is buried in its place.[75]
The Scotch of a century or more ago are said to have considered that an
isolated stone or boulder, firmly fixed in the earth, possessed powers
of a peculiar sort, and some such stones were used to cure bruises and
strains and reduce swellings.[76] As it was also thought that a blow
from a stone of this type was especially hurtful, this would be another
case of homœopathic treatment of which so many and various examples are
afforded by the superstitious use of stones and gems, as well as of
other objects to which certain advantageous qualities were attributed.
Small stone boulders have been made use of by ejected peasants in
Fermanagh, Ireland, in a magical incantation designed to draw down a
curse upon a merciless landlord. For this purpose the peasant would
collect a number of such stones, pile them up on his hearth as he would
have piled turf sods, and then put up a petition that all manner of bad
luck and misfortune might befall the landlord and his descendants to
remote generations. Hereupon he would gather up the stones again, and,
carrying them off, would scatter them about in bog-holes, pools or
streams, so that they should never be brought together again.[77] This
was evidently done in the belief that the curse could only be raised if
a counter-invocation were pronounced over the same collection of stones.
An allusion to a custom of turning stones about while reciting a formula
of malediction is contained in the following lines by Dr. Samuel
Ferguson:
They hurled their curse against the King,
They cursed him in his flesh and bones,
And even in the mystic ring,
They turn’d the malediction stones.
Of all “magic stones” none seem better to deserve this designation than
those mysterious and fascinating mineral specimens, veritable _lusus
Naturæ_, bearing imprinted upon them by nature’s hand some likeness of
the human face or form. The grandeur and the overwhelming power of the
material world are probably as much or even more felt in our prosaic age
than they were in the earliest times, but this sentiment is sometimes
coupled with a sense of distrust—happily neither general nor
permanent—as to the presence in this tremendous and inspiring aggregate
of forces of any distinct and definite evidence of the working of an
intelligence closely similar to our own. It seems not unlikely that to
this half-distrust is in great part due the fascination exercised by
these naturally designed stones. We know, indeed, that when examined
critically by the mineralogist, their strange markings become explicable
as the results of fortuitous stratifications and juxtapositions, but to
our instinctive appreciation they offer so close and startling an
analogy to the artistic reproductions consciously made by the hand of
man, guided by his experience and intelligence, that we are almost
invariably impressed with a keener sense of our kinship with nature.
Some very characteristic and interesting specimens of these natural
designs were at one time in the possession of Queen Victoria, many of
them having been formerly among the treasures in the valuable and
extensive collection of pearls and precious stones carefully gathered
together by the famous banker and connoisseur, Henry Philip Hope. Quite
recently (April 20, 21, 1914) these objects, which had passed into the
J. E. Hodgkin Collection, were sold at Christie’s in London. Perhaps the
most remarkable is thus described by B. Hertz in the Hope Catalogue:[78]
No. 62. A very beautiful lusus, in white and brown agate, representing a
miniature face and neck, with light brown hair and white chaplet,
surrounded by a dark brown ground colour.
So singularly natural and artistic is this strange gem, that it is
difficult to banish the conviction that we are not gazing upon a fine
example of a miniature done by an impressionist.[79] Another
interesting, though somewhat less notable example, was a polished flint,
of a brownish-gray hue, bearing a half-front miniature of an aged head
and face marked in a light brownish-white;[80] still another offered the
representation of a human head, the face half turned away; this was also
a flint, the groundwork of a light horn-color, the design being of a
still lighter shade of the same color.[81]