White Quartz Pebbles. 129 



of Dundee. So frequent indeed was their presence in the 

 latter place that it was common for the workmen to say when 

 excavating, " Here are the two stonfcs, now we will get the 

 bones.* Miss Gordon Gumming says that " akin to these 

 white quartz pebbles in their symbolical connexion with the 

 rel'gious and funeral rites of our ancestors, are the conical 

 masses of white quartz found entombed with human remains 

 in tumuli at Inveraray, Dundee, Letcombe Gastle in Berk- 

 shire, and Maiden Castle near Weymouth, which arc pre- 

 cisely similar to those found in excavations at Nineveh (now 

 to be seen in the British INIuseum) with this exception that on 

 the latter are carved representations of serpents, and of the 

 Sun and Moon."* Dr Gharles Rogers states that " In the- 

 east a small round pebble was worshipped as a symbol of the 

 sun. By the Druids a water-worn crystal of oval shape was 

 worn round the neck ; it was styled glan-nathair , or the 

 adder-cleanser. Rain water, in which it was dipped, was 

 held to possess the power of healing and was with this 

 intent sprinkled among the sickly. f 



- At Burghead the smooth white pebbles to the number of 

 Ave or seven, but never more, have been found on the graves 

 under the fallen ramparts, arranged in crosses. + The white 

 quartz pebbles were called Godstones in Ireland and were 

 placed in Irish graves within recent times, and the belief in 

 the virtue of selected pebbles was of an enduring kind. As 

 Sir Arthur Mitchell observed in his paper before mentioned, 

 it was a custom which has been handed down uninterruptedly 

 from the Stone Age until now. 



It is chiefly by comparing the customs of other countries 

 tha': light can be shed on the meanings of those in our own, 

 and in order to do this we may now perhaps consider briefly 

 the uses to which white quartz pebbles or crystals were put 

 amongst savages. The Tasmanians hung them round their 

 necks to prevent being bewitched, and when a youth grew up 



• C. F. Gordon dimming, In the Hebrides, 1901, p. 456. 

 t Charles Rogers, Social Life in Scotland, 1884, Vol. I., p. 19. 

 X Sir L. Gomme, 1' residential Address to the Folk Lore Society.. 

 1893. 



