Ambkk ani> (I'l IN Ancikni BiKiAis. li;> 



wort the bead on a ribbon round his neck until one dav he 

 lost it when ditf^ing- for worms in his g^arden. Thereafter 

 his luck all left hini, his carg-oes were taken, his boats lost, 

 and he was reduced to penury. Many years after the bead 

 was found again in the garden by one of his grand-children, 

 but the luck did not return, and the curative properties of 

 the bead seem to ha\e been lost. 



.'he Re\ . (ieorge Wilson, of Glenluce, gave a collection 

 to the Scottish Antiquaries of objects from that district, 

 including qii articles of Jet, Shale, and Cannel Coal, con- 

 sisting of bracelets, circular and penannular, buttons, rings, 

 beads, and a pendant. Some of the beads were found in 

 urns near Stranraer, also Amber beads, one flat, much 

 decayed, were found near a bronze chisel, probably part of 

 an interment, .\nother Amfjer bead, remarkably small — 

 three-sixteenths of an inch — :ind reddish in colour, with a 

 neat liole of about one-twentieth of an inch in diameter, was 

 also found in the neighbourhood of Glenluce. 



Xillsson, in his Stone Age in Scandinavia, mentions the 

 hndfng of small axes of .Amber in Stone Age gallery graves 

 containing skeletons of women, of a form mentioned by 

 Horace in the Odes, iv., 4-20, and called by him and by 

 Xenophon in the ".Anabasis," iv., 1, Amazon Axes, found 

 amongst other ornaments of .Amber. It has the appearance 

 of the double axe, and no doubt has a religious meaning, 

 and indeed we are led by all the evidence brought forward 

 to suppose that a very great deal of the superstitions con- 

 nected with Amber and Jet in ancient burials has religion 

 for its primary cause. Primitive man may have thought 

 that these mysterious \ellow stones were the dwelling of 

 some benign spirit, who would act as a sort of guardian 

 angel, and he would not be able to conceive a future life as 

 being \ery different from the one here. So the amulet would 

 be .!s much needed for his welfare and happiness as his 

 spear for defence in the unknown world, and more especially 

 on the perilous journey thither. It is also quite possible to 

 believe that, finding that these substances of Amber and 

 Jet attracted small objects of a material nature, they would 

 assume the unseen would be attracted in a similar manner, 



