44 ELLIOT Smith, Distribution of Mummification. 



seated on a stone ; Homer, in his description of the shield 

 of Achilles in the Iliad, speaks of the elders sitting in 

 the place of justice upon stones in a circle ; Plot, in his 

 account of the Rollrich stones in Oxfordshire, says that 

 Olaus Wormius, Saxo Grammaticus, Meursius, and many 

 other early historians, concur in stating that it was the 

 practice of the ancient Danes to elect their kings in stone 

 circles, each member of the council being seated upon a 

 stone ; the tradition arising out of this custom, that these 

 stones represent petrified giants, is widely spread in all 

 countries where they occur, and Col. Forbes Leslie has 

 shown that within the historic period, these circles were 

 used in Scotland as places of justice" (Lane Fox, 20, 

 p. 64). Is not our king crowned seated upon the Lia-fail, 

 which is now in the coronation chair at Westminster? 

 Such customs and beliefs are widespread also in India, 

 Indonesia, and beyond, as W. J. Perry has pointed out. 

 The practices still observed in the Khasia Hills in modern 

 times clearly indicate the significance of this use of stone 

 seats ; and the custom can be found from the Canary 

 Islands in the West (26) to Costa Rica in the East, 

 encircling the whole globe (compare "Man" May, 191 5, 



P- 79)- 



I shall enter more fully into the consideration of the 

 origin of the ideas associated with stone seats when Perry 

 has published his important analysis of the significance of 

 so curious a practice. 



The converse of the belief in the bringing to life of 

 stone statues — or perhaps it would be more correct to say, 

 the complementary view that, if a stone can be converted 

 into a living creature, the latter can also be transformed 

 into stone — is found also wherever the parent belief is 

 known to exist. As a rule it forms part of a complexly 

 interwoven series of traditions concerning the creation, 



