126 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



in the big bell. When the Protestant chief Mathieu 

 de Merle seized the town in 1580 it is said he melted 

 the bell to cast cannon, but the clapper could not be 

 melted, and it was set up near the left door of the 

 cathedral. Down to the present day women desiring 

 children come and rub their abdomens against it 

 praying to the Virgin the while. 1 In the early years 

 of the last century sterile women used to go to the 

 abbey of Brantome in Prigord, or to the chapel of 

 Saint Robert or to that of Saint Leonard near the 

 village of Jouvens and there attend mass. After the 

 ceremony they went and worked the bolt of the door 

 to and fro, until their husbands came and led them 

 home by the hand with the customary formality. 2 

 Elsewhere there is not even a pretence of human 

 workmanship on the object of the cult. At the 

 entrance of the valley of Aspe (Hautes Pyrenees) there 

 is a natural rock of conical form on which barren 

 women rub their abdomens. 3 This is but one of 

 several examples of the use of rocks and stones in the 

 Pyrenees ; and there are as many in Brittany, besides 

 others in various parts of France. 



It may be thought that the rites at these places are 

 purely magical. There is however a considerable 

 body of evidence showing that the rocks and stones in 

 question are regarded with religious veneration. The 

 clergy of the Roman Catholic Church up to the 

 Revolution at least countenanced the sacred character 

 of many of the menhirs and dolmens by solemn 

 processions and the performance of religious rites. 



1 van Gennep, ap. Dulaure, 326 note. 



2 Sebillot, op. cit. 139 ; Rev. Trad. Pop. xii. 665. 



3 Cuzacq, 112: 



