CELTIC FOLKLORE WELSH AND MANX - JOHN RHYS M.A.D.Litt_ by JOHN RHYS M.A.D.Litt

Author:JOHN RHYS M.A.D.Litt.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-09-02T07:00:00+00:00

' Near Inverary, it is the custom among the fisher-folk, and has been so within the memory of the oldest, to place little white stones or pebbles on the graves of their friends. No reason is now given for the practice, beyond that most potent and delightful of all reasons in the minds of folk-lore students, namely, that it has always been done. Now there is nothing between this modem practice sanctioned by traditional observance and the practice of the stone-age people in the same neighbourhood and in others, as made known to us by their grave-relics. Thus, in a cairn at Achnacrie opened by Dr. Angus Smith, on entering the innermost chamber " the first thing that struck the eye was a row of quartz pebbles larger than a walnut; these were arranged on the ledge of the lower granite block of the east side." Near Crinan, at Duncraigaig and at Rudie, the same characteristic was observed, and Canon Greenwell, who examined the cairns, says the pebbles " must have been placed there with some intention, and probably possessed a symbolic meaning." ' See also Burghead, by Mr. H. W. Young (Inverness, 1899), p. 10, where we read that at Burghead the I smooth white pebbles, sometimes five or seven of them, but never more,' have been usually arranged as crosses on the graves which he has found under the fallen ramparts. Can this be a Christian superstition with the white stones of the Apocalypse as its foundation?

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