40 THE MAGIC OP JEWELS AND CHARMS
is said to be an immediate cure of the trouble, however serious this may be, one experiment being sufficient.64
Stones
of peculiar shape or marked color are those to which popular fancy has
most often attributed a certain sanctity or power. Instances of this
may be found in the Scottish isles. Thus, on the island of Arran in the
Firth of Clyde, a green stone of approximately spherical form had
acquired great repute for its healing virtue, especially for those
having pains in the side. When this stone was laid upon the seat of the
trouble, the pain would disappear. This, however, was not the only use
to which it was put, for oaths were taken upon it, proving the presence
of a certain animistic belief in the islanders' minds, as though some
spirit dwelt in or animated the stone and would take vengeance on a
perjuror. A still better proof of this was the idea that the green
stone of Arran would bring victory to a leader if he bore it with him
and cast it into the enemies' ranks at the decisive moment of a
conflict, as is said to have been done by the Lord of the Isles.
Alongside of this green stone may be placed a blue stone credited in
the Scotch island of Fladda with the possession of like healing power,
and on which also oaths were taken.65
A
large, flat stone in St. Andrew's on the isle of Guernsey is stated to
have borne a somewhat humorously misleading French inscription. This
ran : ' ' Celui qui me tournera, Son temps point ne perdra," which has
been freely rendered:
To him who turns me up I say His labor won't be thrown away.
This tempting promise, interpreted as a sign that some buried treasure was hidden in the ground beneath the stone,
" Paul Sebillot, " The Worship of Stones in France," trans, by Joseph D. McGuire, American Anthropologist, Jan.-Mar., 1902, vol. iv, No. 1, p. 98 ; citing Société des Antiquaires, vol. i, p. 429.
" Martin, " Description of the Western Isles," in Pinkerton'« " Voyagea and Travels," vol. iii, pp. 646. 627.
