PRACTICES TO OBTAIN CHILDREN 79 



Among the virtues of this water are said to be 

 " salutary effects in connection with child-bearing/' 

 and women, if report be correct, " frequented it in this 

 belief till recently ; " but whether it was of inward or 

 outward application is not stated. The other stone is 

 at Arpafeelie, near Inverness. Of this we are told 

 that it possesses similar virtues to those of the former, 

 " when childless women bathe in its cloud-drawn 

 waters immediately before sun-rise." 1 An egg-shaped 

 pebble of quartz two inches long by an inch and a half 

 in greatest diameter was formerly used in the western 

 division of Sandsting parish, Shetland, as a cure 

 for sterility. The would-be mother washed her feet 

 in burn-water (that is, water drawn from a running 

 stream) in which the stone was laid. As in the cases 

 just mentioned, however, none of the details of the rite 

 have come down to us. The stone was said to have 

 been brought originally from Italy. " Unlike most 

 charms, it was not preserved in one family, but passed 

 from the hands of one wise woman to another, the 

 trust being only relinquished when the holder was on 

 her death-bed." 2 



Among the springs on the continent of Europe, 

 which we know were frequented by women for the 

 purpose of obtaining children, the rites practised at 

 very few are recorded. The Hermitage of Nuria, in 

 Catalonia, is celebrated for its olla, or basin, into 

 which barren women have only to dip their heads, 

 after reciting some Paternosters, to recover their 

 fecundity. There is also a fountain near Bizanos, in 



1 Proc. Soc. Ant. Scotl. xvi. 377, 387 (1882). 



2 Id. xviii. 452, quoting letter from Mr. James Shand of the 

 Union Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh, the then owner. 



