CHAP, ix.] SUPERSTITIONS FROM THE STONE AGE. 339 



and they have been traced, by M. Desor 1 and others, 

 over a large part of Europe, from the Pyrenees to 

 Scandinavia, sometimes occurring on tombs, and at 

 others on isolated blocks of stone. They are called cups, 

 bowls, basons, "marmites du diable," and in some places 

 in Germany "stones of the dead." From these names, 

 coupled with the fact that at the present time they axe 

 filled with butter or lard, Mad lle - Mestorf concludes 

 that they -were intended to hold offerings to the souls 

 of the dead, who were waiting again to be clothed with 

 a human body to appear among mortals. The pros- 

 perity of the living would depend on their good will. 

 This superstition has taken deep root in the religious senti- 

 ment of Europe, and, like many others, has been sanctioned 

 by Christianity. Sometimes the bowls are accompanied 

 with Christian signs. In the neighbourhood of Memegk- 

 in-der-Mark, in Prussia, there is a holed stone bearing 

 the name of Bischofs-stein, and the figure of a cross and 

 of a cup. In no less than twenty-seven churches in 

 Prussia, and two in Sweden, these holes have been made 

 in the walls of the churches after they were built. In 

 the town of Griefswald it used formerly to be the 

 practice to get rid of fevers and other maladies by blow- 

 ing into them. Sometimes they bear marks of having 

 been recently filled with grease. According to M. 

 Hildebrand, the Swedish peasants of the present day 

 call them elfstones, and place in them needles, buttons, 

 and the like, as offerings to the elves. These holes have 

 been observed in some of the Icelandic churches built 

 by Scandinavian colonists. The " cup-stones," as they 

 are termed by the countrymen, are still pointed out to 

 the stranger on the moors near Eyam, Derbyshire, and 



1 Desor, Falsan, and Mestorf, Matiriaux, 1878, pp. 259-287. 



