136 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



children would struggle for them. The operation was 

 to be repeated every year until the woman's wish was 

 accomplished. 1 This might perhaps depend on the 

 children's success in picking up the balls, which in 

 passing over the church would have probably acquired 

 magical power. Closely allied with this are some 

 forms of divination and rites to assure marriage. In 

 France young girls, to learn whether they will be 

 married during the year, throw a sou through the 

 doorway of a little chapel at Echemire dedicated to 

 the Virgin. If the coin rest on the altar the girl who 

 has thrown it obtains a favourable omen ; if it fall 

 back she will have to wait as many years as there are 

 paving-stones between the piece of money and the 

 altar. Similar divination is practised at the chapel of 

 Saint Goustan at Croisic by throwing a pin through 

 the hole in a window-shutter. At Jodoigne a very 

 old statue now in a chapel was formerly in a niche 

 fastened on an ancient tree. About five metres from 

 the ground the principal branches of this tree formed 

 another niche into which girls tried to toss stones. If 

 the stone remained in the niche the thrower's hopes 

 were gratified ; but if it fell back she would have to 

 wait awhile for a lover. 2 At the top of Mount Rustup 

 in Russian Armenia is the tomb of a holy hermit visited 

 by numerous pilgrims every year on the eighth of July. 

 The women seek fecundity at the spring which rises 

 near the tomb. One of the stones of the mausoleum 

 is pierced with a number of cup-markings in which 

 the youths and maidens play at a game of divination 

 with small stones. If a stone thrown by any one 



1 Mel. vi. 154, 258, quoting Byegones. 



2 Sebillot, F. L. France -, iv. 139. 



