ON STONE FOLK-LOKE. 211 



emerge which can only be morally dealt with, and if it can 

 be shown that superstition can get foothold among men of 

 modern cultnre. we will cease to wonder at its influence 

 over multitudes of the population outside of that culture. 

 Old wives' fables are not the property of old women alone. 

 As we have already said, they were the very vLite of society 

 who, in the olden time, believed in the Lapis philosophorum 

 and the Elixir vitce. Yet so little was a place among the 

 elite to be relied on as a guarantee for consistent action, men 

 were found among them who did not scruple to put feeble 

 women to the torture when charged Avith bewitching a neigh- 

 bour's cow, or holding converse with Satan in the guise of a 

 black cat. 



There are other stones whose colour more than their 

 shape has attracted popular attention and secured for them 

 a place in wonderland. They are, however, for good reasons 

 to be kept separate from those already looked at. In 

 "Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, (A.D. 697),'^ there are 

 some curious references to these, of much interest both to 

 the mineralogist and the student of folk-lore, references, 

 moreover, which connect tliem with the religious history of 

 these early times. Adamnan mentions a blue stone, a red 

 stone, a black stone, and a white stone, severally noted 

 for remarkable virtues. A full account of these would form 

 a curious chapter in the history of this department. We refer 

 to the last named only, the white stone. " When in the 

 country of the Picts, St. Columba," says Adamnan, "took a 

 white stone from the river (Ness?) and blessed it for the 

 working of certain cures ; and that stone, contrary to nature, 

 floated like an apple when placed in the water. This divine 

 miracle was wrought in the presence of King Brude and his 

 household." In another place we are told that the saint 

 having left the palace of the king, " proceeded to the 

 river Ness; from this stream he took a white pebble and 

 showing it to the company said to them, ' Behold this white 

 pebble by which God will effect the cure of many diseases 

 among the heathen nation.' " We learn afterwards that 

 when the Druid Briachan, who had fallen under the dis- 

 pleasure of the saint, became sick, the king sent Columba 

 to cure him, and this was done by Briachan drinking the 

 water in which the stone Avas swimming. I attach no weight 

 to the miracle-element introduced here. It forms a con- 

 siderable part in Adamnan's biography of the saint. But as 

 bur present task is historical and illustrative rather than 



