1920.] REPORTS. 241 



years, in procession, inspecting the state of the roads and 

 fining the inhabitants, irrespective of their feudal jurisdiction, 

 who had allowed branches or buildings to interfere with the 

 traffic. Interspersed with this observance were many cere- 

 monies which undoubtedly proved it to be a survival of 

 religious, probably pre-Christian, ritual. Well, among the 

 interesting ecclesiastical deeds which are being printed by the 

 Societe Jersiaise in the " Cartulaire des lies " they are now 

 publishing, is one, No. 125, dated 13 J 4, by which the tenants 

 of Fief St. Michel in Guernsey, namely, the parishioners of the 

 Vale, Castel, St. Saviour's, St. Peter-in-the-Wood and Torteval 

 claim as a feudal privilege the right of an annual procession 

 around the " Moustier " of St. Michel. Now " Moustier " 

 means either Monastery or Church (Minster), so that the 

 procession will have taken place around the old feudal Court 

 house of St. Michel, situated just below the Church, and 

 possibly around the Church as well. 



That this procession was considered, even in those days, 

 as a relic of heathendom is evident from the fact that the 

 procession had been stopped by order of the Ecclesiastical 

 Authorities — the Abbot of Mont St. Michel and the Prior of 

 the Vale — and not by the Bailiff and the Royal Court. That 

 large block of stone lying west of the Vale Church was con- 

 jectured by Sir Edgar MacCulloch to be a dislodged logan or 

 rocking-stone. These stones were venerated as oracles by 

 Neolithic man and used for purposes of divination and as 

 meeting places of the tribes by their law-givers and priests. 

 It was undoubtedly to counteract this superstition that the 

 Church was built upon this site, but evidently the old tradition 

 still lingered after many hundred years of Christianity. 



This petition — which apparently was refused — is the sole 

 evidence on record of the occurrence of two processions in 

 connection with the local Fief of St. Michel. 



In the Times of September 28th, 1920, is a letter from 

 Mr. Henry Gauvain, of Alton, Hants, in connection with a 

 notice which had appeared in that paper on " Human Vam- 

 pires " in Spain. And he quotes as a Channel Island case in 

 point a story which I was told when I was in Alderney some 

 sixteen years ago. " A man was very perturbed with the 

 condition of his wife, who was lying dangerously ill. He 

 consulted a witch doctor, who advised him to perform the 

 following test, which would indicate to him whether or not his 

 wife would recover. A circle was to be formed of mercury 

 poured on the ground. In the middle of the circle ' dragon's 

 blood ' (resin obtained from Dcemonorops draco) was to be 



