UATJ.j CUP-MARKS OX CHURCHES— THEORIES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 89 



the vital strength. Another stone, known as La Pierre de Saint- Clement, in 

 the village of Nanney, in the above-named department, is used for the same 

 purpose. In the Swiss Canton of Valais, Professor Desor further states, 

 ailing persons drill into the stones of a certain chapel, and swallow the dust 

 thus obtained.* Mr. Friedel learned from a citizen of Greifswald that the 

 cups were still resorted to in his time for charming away the fever. The 

 Bischofs- Stein, near Niemegk, mentioned on page 24 of this publication, Mr. 

 Fiiedel observes, is still visited by patients and quack doctors who rub it 

 with grease, in order to bring about cures. In a few instances, it seems, 

 the inside of cups on German churches was found to exhibit traces of grease. 

 The same gentleman has drawn attention to the anointing of stones prac- 

 tised for religions purposes by the ancient Jews. He refers to Genesis 

 XXVIII, 18: "And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone 

 that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon 

 the top of it"; and to Zechariah III, 9: "For behold the stone that I have 

 laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes; behold, I will 

 engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove 

 the iniquity of that land in one day." These "eyes" were anointed with 

 oil.f Such customs, however, may have sprung up independently among 

 different nations. 



There are some curious popular traditions connected with the cup- 

 excavations and grooves on churches in Germany. Thus, the grooves on 

 the cathedral at Brunswick pass for the claw-marks of the lion said to have 

 followed Duke Henry of Saxony and Bavaria, surnamed "the Lion," from 

 Palestine to Germany. This lion, the legend says, made the marks in a 

 fit of rage, being unable to enter the church in which his master was 

 praying f In Posen a tradition refers the cups to the souls of the damned, 

 who, during their life-time, never had visited churches. They ground out 

 the cavities during the night, and left them as tokens of their despair at 

 not being allowed access to the closed churches.§ There are other similar 



* Correspondenz-Blalt der Deutschen Anthropologischen Gesellschaft, 1878, S. 156. 

 t Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthropologischen Ge.sellschaft ; Sitzung vom 10. Februar 187H, 

 S. 24. 



t Ibid., Sitzung vom 19. Juui 1875, S. 18. 



6 Ibid., Sitzung vom 15. November 1879, S. 19. 



