122 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 119. 



fish, or to liardon bricks in the snn. (Sanehon. in 

 Cory's Ancient Fragments, pp. 7, 8.) From Chna, 

 '■ the firit Plioeniciaa" as he is called by the same 

 remote authority, the Canaanites acquired the 

 practice of stone-pillar worship, which prevailed 

 amongst them long before : 



" Jacob took the stone that he had put for his pillow, 

 and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top 

 of it ; and called the name of the place Bethel, saying, 

 this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be 

 God's house." — Gen. xxviii. 18. 22. 



The Israelites were repeatedly ordered to destroy 

 these stone idols of the Canaanites, to overthrow 

 their altars, and "break their pillars" (Deut. vii. 

 5. ; xii. 3.). And when the Jews themselves, in 

 their aberrations, were tempted to imitate their 

 customs, Moses points a sarcasm at their de- 

 lusion : — 



" Where are their gods, their rock in whom they 

 trusted! How should one chase a thousand, and two 

 put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold 

 them?"— /6. xxxii. SO. 37. 



From Jacob's consecration of his stone pillar, 

 and the name Bethel which he conferred upon it 

 (which, in Phanician, signified the house of God), 

 were derived the Baetylia, BaiTu\ia or BaiTvXoi, 

 the black stones worshipped in Syria and Asia 

 Minor, In Egypt, and in Greece before the time of 

 Cecrops, under the names of Cybele and of Saturn, 

 who is fabled to have swallowed one of them when 

 he intended to have devoured his son Jupiter. 

 Even in the refined period of Grecian philosophy, 

 the common people could not divest themselves of 

 the influence of the ancient belief; and Theophrastus 

 gives it as the characteristic of the " superstitious 

 man," that he could not resist the impulse to bow 

 to these mysterious stones, which served to mark 

 the confluence of the highways. From Asia Minor 

 pillar worship was carried to Italy and Gaul, and 

 eventually extended to Germany, where the trunks 

 of trees occasionally became the substitute for 

 stone. From the same original the Arabs bor- 

 rowed the Kaaba, the block stone, which Is still 

 revered at Mecca ; and the Brahmans a more re- 

 pulsive form, under which the worship now exists 

 in Hindostan. Even in early times the reverence 

 of these stones took a variety of forms, as they 

 were applied to mark the burial-place of saints 

 and persons of distinction, to define contested 

 boundaries, and to commemorate great events 

 (vide Joshua Iv. 5. ; xxiv. 26.) ; and perhaps 

 many of the stones which have now a traditional, 

 and even historical celebrity in Great Britain, 

 such as the " Lia Fail" of Tara, the great " Stone 

 of Scoon," on which the Scottish kings were 

 crowned ; the "King's Stone" In Surrey, which 

 served a similar office to the Saxons ; the " Charter 

 Stone" of Inverness; the "Leper's Stone" of 

 Ayr; the "Blue Stone" of Carrlck; the "Black 



Stone " of lona, and otlters, m^y have acquired 

 their later respect from their earlier sanctitv. 



There appear to be few countries In the old 

 world which do not possess some monuments of 

 this most remote idolatry ; but there is none in 

 which they would seem to be so abundant as on 

 the western extremity of Europe, In Cornwall, and 

 especially In the islands and promontories from the 

 Land's End to Caithness and the Orkneys. In the 

 latter the worship of stone pillars continued to so 

 recent a period, that one is curious to know when 

 It actually disappeared, and whether there still 

 exist traces of It in any other locality, similar to 

 that pointed out by the Earl of Roden at Inniskea. 

 My own acquaintance with the subject is very 

 Imperfect ; but, so far as my recollection serves, 

 the following references may direct attention to 

 interesting quarters. 



SchefFer, who published his Description of Lap- 

 land in 1673, states that the practice of stone-pillar 

 worship then existed there, and that Storyunkar, 

 one of the deities of Scandinavian mythology, 

 was — 



" Represented by a stone. Neither do they use any 

 art in polishing it ; but take it as they find it upon the 

 banks of lakes and rivers. In this shape they worship 

 it as his image, and call it Kied kie jubmal, that is, the 

 stone god" — Scheffer, Z,a/);)o«ja. Engl. London, 1751. 

 He adds that they select the unhewn stone, be- 

 cause It is in the form In which it was shaped by 

 the hand of the Creator himself. The incident 

 suggests a curious coincidence with the expressions 

 of Isaiah (ch. Ivli. v. 6.) : 



" Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy 

 portion ; they, they are thy lot : even to them hast thou 

 poured a drink-offering ; thou hast offered a meat- 

 offering. Should I receive comfort in these ? " 



Joshua, too, selected the twelve stones with 

 which he commemorated the passage of the Jordan 

 from the midst of the river, where the priests' feet 

 stood when they bore the ark across. 



Martin, in his account of the Western Islands 

 of Scotland in 1703 a.d., describes repeatedly the 

 numerous pillar-stones which were then objects of 

 respect in the several localities. And In one In- 

 stance he states that an image which was held in 

 veneration In one of the islands was swathed in 

 flannel, — a practice which would thus seem to have 

 served as a precedent for the priestess of Inniskea, 

 as detailed by Lord Roden. In speaking of the 

 island of Ei-Iska, to the north of Barra, Martin 

 says — 



" There is a stone set up, near a mile to the south of 

 St. Columbus's church, about eight foot high and two 

 broad. It is called by the natives the bowing stone ; 

 for when the inhabitants had the first sight of the 

 church, they set up this stone, and then bowed, and 

 said the Lord's Prayer." — ^ Description of the Western 

 Islands, p. 88. 



But Borlase, who notices this passage in his 



J 



