NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 435 



So, too, in Celtic countries ; typical of this mode of thought in 

 Brittany and in Ireland is the popular belief that such features in 

 the landscape were dropped by the devil or by fairies. 



Even at a much later period such myths have grown and 

 bloomed ; Marco Polo gives a long and circumstantial legend of a 

 mountain in Asia Minor which, not long before his visit, was re- 

 moved by a Christian who had " faith as a grain of mustard- 

 seed," and, remembering the Saviour's promise, transferred the 

 mountain to its present place by prayer, " at which marvel many 

 Saracens became Christians." * 



Similar mythical explanations are also found, in all the older 

 religions of the world, for curiously marked meteoric stones, fos- 

 sils, and the like. 



Typical examples are found in the imprint of Buddha's feet on 

 stones in Siam and Ceylon ; in the imprint of the body of Moses, 

 which down to the middle of the last century was shown near 

 Mount Sinai ; in the imprint of Poseidon's trident on the Acropo- 

 lis at Athens ; in the imprint of the hands or feet of Christ on 

 stones in France, Italy, and Palestine ; in the imprint of the Vir- 

 gin's tears on stones at Jerusalem ; in the imprint of the feet of 

 Abraham at Jerusalem and of Mohammed on a stone in the Mosque 

 of Khait Bey at Cairo ; in the imprint of the fingers of giants on 

 stones in the Scandinavian Peninsula, in north Germany, and in 

 western France ; in the imprint of the devil's thighs on a rock in 

 Brittany, and of his claws on stones which he threw at churches 

 in Cologne and Saint Pol-de-Le'on ; in the imprint of the shoulder 

 of the devil's grandmother on the " elbow-stone " at the Mohriner- 

 see; in the imprint of St. Otho's feet on a stone formerly pre- 

 served in the castle church at Stettin ; in the imprint of the little 

 finger of Christ and the head of Satan at Ehrenberg ; and in the 

 imprint of the feet of St. Agatha at Catania, in Sicily. To ac- 

 count for these appearances and myriads of others, long and in- 

 teresting legends were developed, and out of this mass we may 

 take one or two as typical. 



* For Maxime Du Camp, see "Le Nil, Egypte et Nubie," Paris, 1877, chapter v. For 

 India, see Diincker, " Geschichte des Alterthums," iii, 366 ; also Coleman, " Mythology of 

 the Hindus," p. 90. For Greece, as to the Lycabettus myth, see Leake, " Topography of 

 Athens," vol. i, sec. 3 ; also Burnouf, "La Legende Athe'nienne," p. 152. For the rock at 

 .<Egina, see Charton, vol. i, p. 310. For Scandinavia, see Thorpe, "Northern Antiqui- 

 ties," passim. For Teutonic countries, see Grimm, " Deutsche Mythologie " ; Panzer, " Bei- 

 trag zur deutschen Mythologie," vol. ii ; and especially J. B. Friedrich, " Symbolik und 

 Mythologie der Natur," pp. 116 et seq. For Celtic examples I am indebted to that learned 

 and genial scholar, Prof. J. F. Mahaffy, of Trinity College, Dublin. See also story of the 

 devil dropping a rock when forced by the archangel Michael to aid him in building Mont 

 Saint-Michel on the west coast of France, in Sebillot's " Traditions de la Haute-Bretagne," 

 vol. i, p. 22 ; also multitudes of other examples in the same work. For Marco Polo, see in 

 Grynaeus, p. 337; also Charton, "Voyageurs anciens et modernes," pp. 274 et seq., where 

 the long and circumstantial legend is given. 



