Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/61

Rh objects, some of which are in no sense organic remains (such as stone axeheads, and arrowheads, etc.), but which are so closely interwoven in folklore with the former kinds that they cannot well be left out of account in discussing the general questions involved. In the present paper I propose more particularly to consider such folklore of our forefathers under two main headings,—(1) with regard to "snakestones" as a typical fossil belief, and (2) with regard to "thunderbolts" of various kinds, from fossils to artificially shaped stones, e.g. celts. A simple and unambitious programme as this may sound, the subject is of such vast dimensions that I can only deal with typical examples of each. We shall see that, though selected for different reasons, both classes of objects are alike used ceremonially.

We will begin with snakestones, of which I may first mention the precious stone or "jewel" which is believed either to come forth, like the toadstone, out of the head, or else to be carried in the mouth of a serpent, a most ancient belief not only in England but in the East. Secondly, I may mention the well-known "snake's egg"' of the Druids of Gaul, described by Pliny, which Conybeare regards as probably being a Greensand fossil covered with Ostrea sigillina, and compares with the "gem" known as "adders's glass," thick green rings of which have been found in British barrows. I may add that other authorities also believe it to have been a fossil, probably some kind of echinoderm. There are also other kinds of stone which for various reasons have been called after snakes, generally because they suggest certain parts of a snake's body. Chief amongst these is perhaps a kind of marble called ophites from its having mottled markings like those on the skin of a snake, and there is also the well-known serpentine, which has long waved markings thought to suggest the curves of a snake's body.