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MAGIC STONES AND ELECTRIC GEMS 23
it
having been noted, for instance, that those which have been washed down
the steep slopes of the Navajo Mountain and the edge of the Black Mesa
are somewhat better rounded than those that have been borne along for a
much greater distance by less swift-flowing water.
That
striated, faceted, or polished pebbles are always of glacial origin, or
that those of glacial origin usually offer these characteristics is far
from the fact; indeed, it may rather be said that they are generally
missing. The fluvioglacial drift is much more widespread than ground
moraine, and the pebbles found in the former rarely present these
aspects; indeed, it has been noted that in an hour's search through the
glacial drift of Connecticut, only a single such specimen may be met
with. On the other hand, many pebbles of this type have been found
under conditions plainly showing that the striation was due to other
causes, in some instances, as with those occurring in conglomerates, to
pressure and differential movement.38
The
burying of white stones or lumps of quartz with the dead was not
infrequent in early times in Ireland. The peasants of the north of
Ireland call these Godstones. A cist found at Barnasraghy, County
Sligo, was nearly filled with quartz pebbles, and not long since a
white stone was found in a primitive burial place near Larne, County
Antrim. That this was a usage confined to the earlier period of Irish
history is generally admitted, and the discovery of such white stones
in a grave is accepted as an indication that it belongs to an early
date.39
It has been suggested that these white stones were used for burials because of the symbolic meaning of the color,
"
See Herbert E. Gregory, " Note on the Shape of Pebbles," in The
American Journal of Science, vol. xsziz, pp. 303, 304 ; March, 1915.
• W. G. Wood-Martin, " Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland," London, 1902, vol. i, p. 329.
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