02 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



Joshua xxiv : 17 — ' And Joshua took a great stone, and set it up there 

 under an oak, and he said unto all the people, ; Behold this stone shall 

 be a witness unto us ; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord, which 

 He spake unto us j it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny 

 your God." Ancient history mentions their existence in various places; 

 and, without doubt, from ancient Britain their use was introduced into 

 this country, where they are numerous, but I shall only mention a few. 

 In Sili'unau' s Journal, O. Mason notices two rocking Stones in the neigh- 

 borhood of Providence, N. E., a and Dr. J. Porter, two in Massachusetts; 

 another writer, speaks of several near Roxbury in the same State; one 

 at Andover,and another at Duxham. in New Hampshire. Putnam's 

 Rock, thrown by some soldiers during the Revolutionary war from a cliff 

 into the Hudson river, where it is now visible, was a Druidical Rocking 

 stone. According to American history, it " was so adroitly poised and 

 easily moved that it attracted general attention." Speaking of the usages 

 of the ancient British Druids, an English writer says: '• They erected 

 also great stones, called by moderns '■Rocking Stones' so cunningly fitted 

 one upon another, that if the upper one were touched in a certain place, 

 though only with a finger, it would rock ; whereas no strength of man 

 could avail to move it, if applied to any other part. Hither they led 

 those accused of any other crime, and — under pretence that the gods, 

 would, by this form of trial, show the guilt or innocence of the party — di- 

 rects 1 him where to touch, and make the proof; and thus, at their direc- 

 tion, (how like the priest-craft of every age,) they either absolved the ac- 

 cused, or made them appear guilty — knowing where the laving of the fin- 

 ger would move the rock, and where no human power could effect it." 

 The author of " Mexican and American Antiquities," published in 

 France, mentions the existence of Rocking Stones among South Ameri- 

 can ruins ; he terms them " balancing rocks, similiar to the Celtic monu- 

 3 of France and of England." The Spanish historian Fuentes, speak- 

 ing of the customs of the Aborigines of Gautimala, South America, al- 

 luding to their mode of trying criminals, says: "After the sentences of the 

 criminals were given, it was necessary to have them comfirmed by the 

 oracle, for which purpose three of the judges left their seats and proceed- 

 ed to a deep ravine, where there was a place of worship containing a 

 sacred stone, on the surface of which the Diety was supposed to indicate 

 the fate of the criminal. If the decision was approved, the sentence was 

 executed immediately — if nothing appeared on the stone, the accused 

 was set at liberty." Juarros, in his history of Guatimala, speaking of 



a T'n - I "Drum Bock,'' within two miles of Wlckford, North Kings- 



ton. Th • Bound r :rum: it can be heard a gre^t distance off, some say to tne 



next stone : near it is a burying gruuu'i. — [Ed.] 



