In a tumulus on Ashey Down,[1] in the Isle of Wight, an "echinite" accompanied an interment of burnt bones, with which was a bronze dagger. Douglas also found one with an amber bead by the side of a Saxon skeleton near Chatham. He regarded it as an amulet, and states that in Scotland the peasants still have a belief in the virtue of these fossils. I have seen cidares forming part of Saxon necklaces after having been perforated; and others converted into spindle-whorls.
In fact, the use of stones as amulets still lingers on in the northern parts of this country. There is in the National Museum at Edinburgh[2] a flat oval pebble, 212 inches long, which was worn as a charm in a small bag hung by a red string round the neck of a Forfarshire farmer, who died in 1854, æt. 84. The heart-shaped nodule of clay iron-stone in the same Museum, with a copper loop for suspension, and heart-shaped and oblong pendants of copper and silver, mentioned in my former edition, proves to be a forgery.
The custody of charms sometimes became hereditary. Martin[3] describes a stone in Arran possessed of various miraculous virtues. "The custody of this globe is the peculiar privilege of a little family called Clan Chattons." Other charm-stones and curing-stones have been described in interesting papers by Sir J. Y. Simpson, Bart.,[4] Mr. James M. Gow,[5] Dr. Alexander Stewart,[6] and Mr. G. F. Black.[7]
Among the Scandinavian nations[8] the possession of certain stones was believed to secure victory in encounters, and the belief is constantly mentioned in ancient poetry.
A confidence in the virtues of "lucky stones," that is to say, pebbles with a hole through them, or with a band around them, is still widely spread, and I well remember the incantation—
"Lucky-stone, lucky-stone, bring me some luck,
To-day, or to-morrow by twelve o'clock."
These perforated stones were also sovereign against the nightmare. "Take a Flynt Stone that hath a hole of hys owne kynde, and hang it ouer hym and wryte in a bill—
'In nomine Patris, &c.
Saint George, our Ladye's Knight,
He walked day, so did he night,
Untill he hir found.
He hir beate and he hir bounde,
Till truely her trouth she him plyght
That she woulde not come within the night,
There as Saint George, our Ladye's Knight,
Named was three tymes Saint George.'
And hang this Scripture ouer him, and let him alone."[9]
In Bavaria[10] a Druten-stein is a natural pebble with a hole through it, and is a charm against witches.
- ↑ Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. x. p. 164.
- ↑ Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. v. p. 327.
- ↑ "Desc. of West. Isl. of Scot., 1703," p. 226, quoted by Stuart, "Sculpt. St. of Scot.," vol. ii. p. lv.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. iv. pp. 211, 279.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. xxii. p. 63.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. xxiv. p. 157.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. xxvii. p. 433.
- ↑ De Bonstetten, "Rec. d'Ant. Suisses," p. 8. Nilsson, "Stone Age," p. 215.
- ↑ Blundevill's "Fower chiefest Offices belonging to Horsemanship," quoted in N. and Q., 6th S., vol. i. p. 54.
- ↑ Arch. f. Anth., vol. xxii. (1894), "Corr. Blatt.," p. 101.
