386 Archosologia. 



fluence of the evil eye was an article of belief from the most remote 

 ages. Superstition offered the preventive or cure, as well as the 

 cause of the evil ; and it is on this part of the subject that Mr. 

 Cuming treats, in the paper read before the British Archaeological 

 Association. There is a sort of homoeopathic feeling which seems 

 to be natural to man in a state of ignorance, which leads him to 

 suppose that a disease produced by such supernatural agencies 

 would be best cured by the application of the instrument which had 

 created it, and at least some forms of these stone implements, and 

 stones of rare character unworked, were preserved carefully for 

 this purpose. These objects were supposed to be the work of the 

 fairies, who had imparted to them magical properties, which might 

 be employed either by touching the diseased cattle, or by washing 

 them with the water in which the magical amulets had been dipped. 

 Mr. Cuming gave numerous anecdotes of this practice. The pos- 

 session of such amulets was greatly coveted, and they were often 

 set in silver. In Scotland, even so recently as the time of Pennant, 

 that writer tells us that " Capt. Archibald Campbell showed me one 

 — a spheroid set in silver — for the use of which people came above 

 a hundred miles, and brought the water it was to be dipped in with 

 them." These objects were sometimes balls of crystal. One of the 

 most celebrated of these is in the possession of the Marquis of 

 "Waterford, and is said by traditionary legend to have been origi- 

 nally brought from the Hohy Land. When pestilence appears 

 among the cattle, this amulet is in great request, to be dipped in 

 the water given the cattle to drink, or in a brook, through which 

 they are driven backwards and forwards. Mr. Cuming exhibited 

 several examples and drawings of these amulets, among which the 

 most remarkable was the celebrated Lee Stone, or Lee Penny, which 

 is said to have suggested to Sir Walter Scott the design of his 

 " Talisman." According to the legend, Robert Bruce wished that, 

 after his death, his heart should be carried to the Holy Land by Sir 

 James Douglas, and in 1329, the latter, accompanied by Sir Simon 

 Locard, of Lee, proceeded on the mission. In Spain, the Scots 

 were drawn into a combat with the Moors, Douglas was killed, and 

 Sir Simon, who now commanded the party, turned homeward with 

 Bruce's heart, which was eventually buried in the abbey of Dun- 

 fermline. Sir Simon had taken prisoner a Moorish chieftain ; and 

 the wife of the prisoner, when she bargained for her husband's 

 ransom, counting the gold from her purse, let drop this gem, and 

 appeared so anxious to recover it, that Locard insisted on its being 

 made a part of the ransom. The lady unwillingly consented, and 

 informed the greedy Scot that its value consisted in its power in 

 healing diseased cattle, and that it was also a sovereign remedy 

 against the bite of a mad dog. So great was the popular faith in 

 this " talisman" in Scotland, that the Lee Penny was excepted from 

 anathema in the clerical war upon superstitions, after the Reforma- 

 tion ; and the clergy went so far as to extol its virtues, which were 

 resorted to for the cure of infected cattle until a very recent period. 

 The Lee Stone appears to be the variety of cornelian agate called 

 hcemachates — a heart-shaped pebble, measuring about half an inch 



