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in the process of being placed as a cover; it was moved round in a circular direction until the position where it fitted the lower stone was reached. That this circular striation is an important testimony to the antiquity of association of the two stones may be judged from the fact that the general under-surface of the upper stone has been so much worn down by this circular movement as to leave one or two small hard pebbles projecting from the semi-polished and striated surface. Another and more forcible argument may be drawn from the association of the two stones, that while, as will after appear, every such knocking-stone in Scotland was provided with a covering stone, in not another instance do I know of the survival of both the associated stones. I have seen scores

[graphic]

Fig. 2. The Wallace Stones'-a knocking-stone with its cover on. (15.)
(From a photograph by Mr A. Hutcheson.)

of knocking-stones, and I have seen one or two slabs which, on a fair presumption, may have been covers, but never associated, except in the present instance.

A knocking-stone' was probably at one time a necessary adjunct to every cottage in Scotland. It was in constant use for husking barley for the pot-a process accomplished by knocking, grinding, or rubbing the grains of barley against each other and against the stone with a wooden pestle or mallet. As the process has been long out of use, and soon there will be no one alive who has seen it, it may be well to place a description of it on record. The Rev. John Maclean, Cor, Mem., S. A. Scot., Minister of Grandtully, to whom I

have more than once had to acknowledge my grateful indebtedness for like aid, has favoured me with the following particulars of the

process:

The dry barley grains were put into the stone pot or knocking-stone, sprinkled with a little water to moisten them and to soften the husk, and then beaten with a wooden mallet or mell until the husks were rubbed off. If the day was dry and a wind blowing, the contents of the stone pot would be taken out and laid on a cloth or any little knoll or dry place to get the husks blown away, or sometimes, and especially if it was wet weather or no wind blowing, the barley was put into a 'wecht' (a sheepskin stretched over a hoop) and shaken up and down, the husks meanwhile being vigorously blown away by the breath. This would be repeated until all the husks were blown away. By this primitive method the barley intended for broth was prepared down to as recently as 1850 in some districts in the Highlands.

The wooden mallet was sometimes shaped like a pestle, and in use was simply lifted up and down with pounding motion; more frequently the mallet was fixed in a wood handle axe-wise, and was then used like a hammer. Sometimes the mallet was double headed, having a broad or ball-head at each end of a stem, like a dumb-bell, and having the handle fixed at a right angle to the middle of the stem. The advantage of this arrangement was thought to be that as the ball ends, from being used at intervals alternately, got to be worn to a slightly different superficies, they imparted, when alternated, a sort of rotatory motion to the grains of barley which contributed to unhusking, besides making a better balanced hammer than the one-sided form.1

In Strathspey, wooden knocking-pots were used instead of stone.2 They were usually much deeper than and not so wide at the mouth as the stone ones. The wood was supposed by some to be better than

1 For description of a knocking-stone and mell of axe-type in the Society's Museum, see Proceedings, vol. xii. p. 263.

There is a wood knocking-block with its wooden mell from Strathspey in the Museum. For description of it, see Proceedings, vol. xxiv. p. 278.

VOL. XXXIV.

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stone, inasmuch as the wood did not cut the barley as a hard stone would do, and the greater depth of the wooden pot was supposed to prevent the barley from jumping out in the process of being beaten.

These wooden pots had also covers of wood in the same way as the stone examples, the object of the cover being to keep the interior clean, and to prevent dogs and poultry from getting at the pot. Barley was said to be sweeter when dressed in this way than by modern methods.

The barley stone always stood just within the door, so as to be handy for getting the husks blown away.

Those who have seen the interior of a Highland cottage before the inroad of the modern tourist had made the inhabitants 'sprush up' can well realise that a few barley husks lying about the floor would not raise any feelings of inconvenience to the inmates, and the probability is that in Wallace's time the barley stone stood well inside the house, as this position would give it better protection from the weather, and it might at the same time furnish a seat at a period when we may be sure the cottage homes of Scotland were not overburdened with furniture.

This is not the place to discuss the probabilities of the tradition. It is sufficient to observe that there are distinct points of difference between it and the narrative of Blind Harry, which would seem to indicate the tradition was not due to that work. Further, it may be remarked that the Longforgan tradition does not deal with any of the superhuman feats, the hero-myths current in Scotland, many of which have not yet been recorded, but relates to an incident that has all the colour of probability about it, and I think there is every reason for the careful preservation of a relic so interesting, mainly on account of the story which has linked them with the National hero, but also as relics of an extinct domestic usage in Scotland.

IV.

NOTICE OF A CHARM-STONE USED FOR THE CURE OF DISEASES AMONGST CATTLE IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. BY A. HUTCHESON, F.S.A. SCOT., BROUGHTY-FERRY.

The use of charm-stones is probably coeval with human superstition. The brilliant colours of gems and crystals doubtless early impressed the imaginative faculty which endowed them with suggestions of occult powers and potentialities, but long ere man had reached the stage of polishing gems so as to bring out their lustre and brilliant colours, mere form and natural colour had arrested his attention and led him to associate with the water-rounded stone a special quality of power and influence over human affairs. The frequency with which the simple water-rounded pebble of white quartz is found associated with early burials points to an underlying significancy so highly esteemed as to have rendered it not unfrequently to all appearance the only relic thought. worthy of preservation among the ashes of the dead; and the child of modern days who collects from the gravel beach his hoard of little white. pebbles is probably only following out a tendency evinced by prehistoric man, and inherent in the human race.

But noteworthy as is the frequency with which the white pebble recurs in ancient burial sites, it seems probable that a significance attached to water-rounded stones of any kind. Their smoothness, regularity of rounded outline, and, when wet, their pleasing colours must have soon marked them out for notice and suggested to early man's infant powers a mysterious origin. Hence, doubtless, the reason for the paving of the bottoms of many burial cists with such water-rolled pebbles, brought in some cases from a considerable distance.

There is an early literary reference to a mystic stone which illustrates in a remarkable manner this tendency of superstition to

1 Sir Arthur Mitchell has gathered together and commented on a number of instances in ancient and modern times of the association of white pebbles with burials. See Proc., vol. xviii. pp. 286-291.

1

regard certain stones as endowed with healing powers. It occurs in Adamnan's Life of St Columba, where it is related that in the country of the Picts the saint took a white stone from the river and blessed it for the working of certain cures, saying, "Behold this white pebble, by which God will effect the cure of many diseases among this heathen nation." It is further related that when the Druid Broichan, foster-father of King Brude, stricken with sickness as a punishment for his refusal to liberate at the request of Columba a certain female slave, sent to the saint expressing his willingness now to set the maiden free, St Columba sent two of his companions to the King with the pebble which he had blessed, and said to them, “If Broichan shall first promise to set the maiden free, then at once immerse this little stone in water and let him drink from it, and he shall be instantly cured; but if he break his vow and refuse to liberate her, he shall die that instant."

Needless to say, after such a warning the captive was liberated and delivered to the saint's messengers. "The pebble was then immersed in water, and in a wonderful manner, contrary to the laws of nature, the stone floated on the water like a nut or an apple, nor, as it had been blessed by the holy man, could it be submerged. Broichan drank from the stone as it floated on the water, and instantly returning from the verge of death, recovered his perfect health and soundness of body. This remarkable pebble which was afterwards preserved among the treasures of the King, through the mercy of God effected the cure of sundry diseases among the people, while it in the same manner floated when dipped in water. And what is very wonderful, when this same stone was sought for by those sick persons whose term of life had arrived, it could not be found; thus on the very day on which King Brude died, though it was sought for it could not be found in the place where it had been previously laid.”

This story serves to illustrate what was doubtless at that early period

The Historians of Scotland, vol. vi. pp. lxxxv, 4, 59-60,

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