134 White Quartz Pebbles. 



indeed was the sign, sometimes found clenched tightly in the 

 skeleton hand, an emblem of purity and justification, and of 

 misdeeds wiped out. Also if, as in Palestine of old, as 

 Isaiah tells us, smooth stones from the brook were wor- 

 shipped, and offerings made to them, it would seem as if the 

 pagan people thought the stones contained the spirit of their 

 gods. For in fact, as Dr Marett says, speaking of the way 

 stones at all curious in shape, position, size, or colour would 

 seem specially designed by nature to appeal to primitive 

 man's supernaturalistic tendency, that they would be invested 

 by his imagination with the vague but dreadful attributes 

 of Powers, ranging from the vaguest semi-conscious belief 

 in their luckiness, onwards to the distinct animistic con- 

 ception of them as the home of spirits of the dead or un- 

 born, or as the image and visible presence of a god,* and, 

 in such a case, the dearest wish of the departed would be 

 to take them with them, deposited by their nearest relatives 

 in their burial-places, close to, or under the bodies. 

 It is evident that these stones were considered as most 

 sacred, and reverenced accordingly ; in some cases they were 

 looked upon as endowed with magical qualities, and the 

 future was constantly foretold by their use. 



Therefore, combined with all the other reasons as to 

 their utility in a future life, perhaps the chief one may have 

 been the idea of a passport after purification by death, to a 

 life beyond, a tradition of which persisted through all the 

 centuries before the Christian era, and was present in the 

 mind of the Apostle John when he wrote down the well- 

 known words, " To him that overcometh ... I will 

 give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, 

 which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it." 



* Paper read before the Folk Lore Society, November 15th, 

 1899; Folklore, vol. XL, p. 174. 



