III.
THE KINGSTON MORASTEEN.
A PAPER READ BEFORE THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SURREY ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY, HELD AT KINGSTON, JUNE 30, 1854; WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES.
By WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Dr. and Honorary Member.
The inauguration of the Royal Coronation Stone at Kingston, by which the inhabitants and contributors have done themselves so much honour, and our early history good service, induces me to offer a few remarks on its significance and early use, deduced from corresponding memorials in various and widely-distant countries, and from the observances concerning those at very remote intervals, some of which survived till within a comparatively recent period.
That stones must necessarily, in the earliest ages of society, have served as seats; that some of a particular form, or in a peculiar situation, were gradually elected from the mass as the royal throne of princes and kings, whence, when the pontiff and kingly character were united, they were deemed holy, and afterwards shed the halo of their sanctity on everything around, or in contact with them, is but the natural and gradual march of the human intellect from things common to select—from select to sacred and divine. The meteor-stones that had been observed to fall from heaven—the Bethulia[1]—had an additional, perhaps to the savage mind an inevitable, cause of reverence, which in many cases, as in the Caaba[2] of Mecca, or the misshapen fragment worshipped as a
- ↑ Bethulia, Βαιτυλια.—This word is not found either in the classic Grecian or Latin authors, and yet its use may be traced in the quotation of Damascius in Photius's Library, and in Hesychius, who deduces it from βαιτη, pellis, because he thinks it took the name from the stone which Saturn devoured instead of Jupiter being enveloped in a skin. A more simple and probable derivation is from the Hebrew בית a house, and אל the Lord, the literal interpretation of Jacob's stone pillow. In this Bochart, Scaliger, Selden, and Bompart concur; and it is not, therefore, to be wondered at that nations who boast the possession of such stones, claim them as the identical block which Jacob sanctified by pouring oil upon it, and giving its locality this designation. The Mahommedans, as one cause of their reverence of the Caaba, trace it back to this origin; and so do the Irish and Scotch, for the stone now under the coronation-chair in Westminster Abbey, it being brought by some of the regal family of Jerusalem, after the first destruction of that city, and lodged within Tara's princely halls, whence it migrated with the Scoti, who took possession of Scotland, to Scone, till it was taken as a trophy by Edward the First to his own capital.
Some of these meteoric stones are met with of immense and almost incredible size. In the British Museum is a portion of one which fell at Otumbo, in Central America, estimated to have weighed fifteen tons, as described by Don Rubico de Cilis. This fragment weighs fourteen hundred pounds: but according to Southey, one fell at Durango which far surpassed even this enormous mass, as described by Gaspar de Villagra, in Historia de la Nueva Mejico. The common resource of ignorance and fear, to deem everything uncommon, supernatural, is found equally active in undiscovered America as in the East. The Aztec tradition fabled that a demon appeared to two brothers who were leading a horde of ancient Mexicans in search of a new country: she told them to separate, and threw down the block of iron which she carried on her head, to be a boundary betwixt them.
It is true, Humboldt's observations reduce this weight very considerably; but even his authentic data of nineteen hundred myriogrammes leave sufficient room for the wonder and worship of an ignorant people. The soldiers of Cortez found on the Pyramid of Cholula a meteorite divinely worshipped as an immediate gift of the Sun, much the same as Sanconiathon tells us in the passage of the text, the Βαιτυλια· λιθους εμψυχους επενοησε Θεος Ουρανος.
- ↑ Caaba.—In Sale's Translation of the twenty-second chapter of the Koran (4to, London, 1734, p. 276) we find this expression:—"Call to mind when we gave the site of the house of the Kaaba for an abode to Abraham, saying, Do not associate anything with me, and cleanse my house from those who compass it, and who stand up and who bow down." The translator in a note seems to intimate that the future structure was shown to Abraham in a vision, though wilder legends make it a structure of Paradise taken up against the Deluge into heaven, and again let down in favour of the confiding patriarch.
Its principal sanctity would, however, be undoubtedly derived from the stone, whose blackness indicates its meteoric origin, though Moslem tradition ascribed its colour to a cause that would eminently contribute to the perverseness of the faithful, and the necessity of pilgrimage.—Ibid. p. 117.
"The celebrated black stone which is set in silver and fixed in the south-east corner of the Caaba, being that which looks towards Bafra, about 2⅓ cubits from the ground.—This stone is exceedingly respected by the Mahommedans, and is kissed by the pilgrims with great devotion. They fable that it is one of the precious stones of Paradise, and fell down to earth with Adam, and being taken up again, or otherwise preserved at the Deluge, the angel Gabriel brought it back to Abraham. It was at first whiter than milk, but grew black long since by the touches of so many wicked mortals; as the superficies only is black."
It is doubtful, however, whether this latter assertion rests upon any critical examination; and the conformity of legend betwixt the Caaba as a building, and the stone, leaves little doubt as to their identity, or an early veneration of the stone by the Sabean votaries of Arabia prior to Mahommed. This it was prudent to conceal under the authority and sanctity of Abraham; and the mighty Hobal (vide Sale's Koran, cap. 22, p. 276) was the presiding deity of the Pagan sanctuary, and the guardian of its worship.
This conjecture, that the stone, rather than the building, was the more especial object of sanctity, is proved by the testimony of Codinus (edit. Lambec, Paris, p. 29):—
"Thesaurum Deum Arabes maxime colunt cujus simulacrum est lapis quadrangulus non figuratus, quatuor pedum altitudinem, duarum latitudinem, et unum profunditatem habens. Collocatum vero est supra basim inauratam. Huic sacrificiunt, sanguinemque victimæ profundunt: hoc enim illis prolibamento est. Tota ædes ejusque parietes ex auro sunt, et plurima illic offeruntur donaria. Habet ejus simulacrum colitque Petræ Arabiæ civitas."
It is remarkable that in "Kosmos," Humboldt, whilst treating on meteoric stones, does not mention the Caaba.
