The European Sky -God. 331
At Strath in Skye there is a tradition that St. Maree
used to preach, and that he hung a bell in a tree, where
it remained for centuries, dumb all the week, but ringing
of its own accord all Sunday.^ At Contin, too, there is
a burial ground called Praes Maree or ' Maree's Bush.'^
The inference that St. Maree had a sacred tree or bush
rises to a certainty, when we take into account the
evidence concerning Inchmaree, an island in Loch
Maree. Pennant, who visited the place in 1772, describes
it as 'covered thickly with a beautiful grove of oak, ash,
willow, wicken, birch, fir, hazel, and enormous hollies. In
the midst is a circular dike of stones, with a regular
narrow entrance : the inner part has been used for ages
as a burial place, and is still in use. I suspect the dike
to have been originally Druidical, and that the antient
superstition of Paganism had been taken up by the
saint, as the readiest method of making a conquest over
the minds of the inhabitants. A stump of a tree is
shewn as an altar, probably the memorial of one of
stone ; but the curiosity of the place is the well of the
saint; of power unspeakable in cases of lunacy. ... I
must add, that the visitants draw from the state of the
well an omen of the disposition of St. Maree : if his
well is full they suppose he will be propitious ; if not
they proceed in their operations with fears and doubts :
but let the event be what it will, he is held in high
esteem : the common oath of the country is, by his
name : if a traveller passes by any of his resting-places,
they never neglect to leave an offering ; but the saint is
so moderate as not to put him to any expence : a stone,
a stick, a bit of rag contents him.'^ St. Maree's tree
and well are still to be seen. Miss Gertrude M. Godden *
^Miss G. M. Godden in Folk-lore iv. 506. '^■Ead. ib.
^ T. Pennant A Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides Chester 1 7 74 p. 330.
- Miss G. M. Godden ' The Sanctuary of Mourie ' in Folk-lore iv. 498-
508, with an illustration of the tree.
