156 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
having
arisen from certain magic crystals which had been cast into its waters.
These crystals, if placed in water, rendered the liquid a potion of
great curative power. They were the property of a woman who had gained
by their possession a great reputation as a healer, but her success
attracted the envy of a neighbor who determined to secure for himself
the woman's wonder-working stones. In pursuance of this design he came
to her, feigning illness. She saw through his deception and sought
safety in flight, but he pursued her and was gaining rapidly on her,
when she threw the stones into the waters of the lake, crying out the
Gaelic word noire, "shame," and uttering the wish that its
waters should be rendered powerful to cure the sick, all except those
of the clan Gordon to which the would-be thief belonged. As the
correct translation of the name of the lake is said to be not "Lake of
Shame" but " Serpent Lake," the legend appears to have no good
foundation, but is perhaps as true as any of the popular tales
purporting to explain the origin of the virtues of healing springs or
waters.93
To
many stones was attributed the power of transmitting a certain
remedial virtue to water or other liquid in which they were immersed.
This, as we have related, was the case with the white stone that St.
Columba sent to King Brude at Inverness when the king's druid priest
Broichan was suffering from disease. A peculiarity of this stone was
that if it were required in the case of a person about to die, it would
disappear from view. Thus its remedial powers could never be put to
test unless success were assured.94
There
can be no reasonable doubt that some remarkable cures have been
effected by means of relics, or by drinking the waters of a spring
believed to have been pointed out by some divine vision. From a purely
scientific standpoint
"Walsh
"Curiosities of Popular Customs, " Philadelphia, 1911, p. 624. ·*
MacCulloch, " Religion of the Ancient Celts," Edinburgh, 1911, p. 332.
