Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/226

 2i8 A. IV. Moore.

depart. In fact, the process of reasoning was the same as with regard to many charms. Thus, for instance, a penny was rubbed on fat bacon and then on a wart ; after this the bacon was buried, and it was supposed that by the time it decayed the wart would be cured.^ As regards the pins, coins, beads, and buttons, I believe that they also were formerly vehicles of disease, but they are now invariably considered to be offerings. But, with refer- ence to the practice of dropping pebbles into or near the wells,- it should also be borne in mind that it was probably once believed that the pebbles themselves were endowed with curative properties, so that they perhaps added to the supposed efficacy of the wells.

The pebbles found in or near Manx wells are almost invariably white, and, in connexion with this fact, some other uses of white pebbles may be mentioned, as a reference to them may lead to some elucidation of the question of their significance. It was by immersing a white pebble in water that St. Columba, who has left so many traces of his influence in Man, is said to have per- formed numerous marvellous cures.^ White pebbles have been found* in the churchyards of the parishes of Bride and Maughold, and in the churchyard of the old Keeill., called Kilkellan, in the parish of Lonan, at from two or three feet below the present level of the ground. These are the only churchyards which have been examined with a view of finding pebbles, but it is probable that

1 Another instance : A piece of woollen thread must be procured, and a knot tied upon it to represent each individual wart. It must then be thrown away or buried in some place that the patient is ignorant of, and, as the thread rots, the warts will die away.

2 When thrown near the well, the pebbles were perhaps intended as offerings only. Mr. G. F. I'lack, in his " Scottish Charms and Amulets", gives instances of water being endowed with curative powers by pebbles being thrown into it. (See Procecdmgs of Soc. o Alii, of Scotland {iZ<^-}^\ pp. 433-526.

•^ Adamnan, Life of St. Columba, Lib. 11, cap. xxiv. ^ By the Rev. S. N. Hari'ison.