itATT] DESOE'S VIEWS— CUPPED ASPERSORIA IN SWEDEN. 85 



pcatriarchs put up in commemoration of important events. They were the 

 natural auxiliaries of traditions, without being their interpreters. Tliis was 

 more than sufficient to render them popular. It is not surprising that they 

 were the objects of a certain veneration, which, indeed, lias not yet ceased 

 in our days in some parts of Europe, where they are denominated 'sacred 

 stones' by the people."* 



Mr. Rivett-Carnac's views in relation to the primitive sculptures of 

 India have been given, in connection with.his descriptive account, in a pre- 

 ceding part of this publication, and I need not revert to them for the present. 

 Though Professor Nilsson's theories are likewise known to the reader, 

 I have to draw attention to his statements concerning the continuance of 

 cup-cutting in comparatively modern times. He is of opinion that the first 

 Christian missionaries who came to Sweden, found iu certain parts of the 

 country a population still sacrificing on capped Baal altars. In order to 

 wean the people in a gentle manner from this practice, he thinks, the priests 

 first used the cupped boulders as holy-water stones, and afterward intro- 

 duced aspersoria in the shape of cupped stone vessels in the churches. 

 Indeed, he describes and figures several of these vessels belonging to 

 Scanian churches in which, before the era of Protestantism, Catholic wor- 

 ship was performed. Fig, r)9 represents one of the holy-water basins 

 figured by Nilsson, which is still seen in a church at Stro, in the Bishopric 

 of Lund. Its upper sui-face shows five cup-excavations, but is otherwise 

 smooth. A transition from this simple to a somewhat more elaborate device 

 is shown by Fig. 60, likewise copied from Nilsson's work, and representing 

 a holy-water basin in a church at Oennarp, in Scania. Its slightly hollowed 

 upper surface exhibits five excavations, namely, a cross in the centre and a 

 cup in each corner.f 



There is but little doubt that this Christian contrivance of employing holy- 

 water basins with cup-excavations is the survival of a preceding heathenish 

 practice ; but it is more than questionable whether these Christian church- 

 vessels were designed to perpetuate, as it were, the recollection of what 

 Professor Nilsson considers as sacrificial altars. Taking it for granted that 



*Desor: PiciTos h, ficuclles ; p. 18 andjjassin- 

 t Nilsson : Das Bronzealter ; Nachtrag, S. 4? 



