CORONATION STONE.
(Vol. ix., p. 123.)
Possibly the following authorities may tend to throw light upon the question started by your correspondent.
In Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. xvii. p. 287., 4to. ed., London, 1747, it is said:
"St. Austin tells us that some of the Carthaginian divinities had the name of Abaddires, and their priests that of Eucaddires. This class, in all probability, was derived from the stone which Jacob anointed with oil, after it had served him for a pillow the night he had his vision; for in the morning he called the place where he lay Bethel. Now it is no wonder this should have been esteemed as sacred, since God himself says, he was the God of Bethel, the place where Jacob anointed the pillar. From Bethel came the bætylus of Damascius, which we find called Abaddir by Priscian. This Abaddir is the Phœnician Aban-dir, that is, the spherical stone, exactly answering to the description of the bætylus given us by Damascius and others. The case seems to have been this; the Canaanites of the neighbourhood first worshipped the individual stone itself, upon which Jacob had poured oil; afterwards they consecrated others of that form, and worshipped them; which false worship was perpetuated even to the time of St. Austin."—See note (N), Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. i. p. 310.
Now if such stones were an object of worship among the Phœnicians, nothing is more probable than that they should take such a stone along with them in their migrations to new settlements; and it may therefore well be that the Phœnicians, who first settled in Ireland, did bring such a stone with them; and hence possibly the tradition in question may have originated.
There is abundant evidence that the Phœnicians fled from Palestine in very early times (Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. iii. p. 479.), and probably some of the Jews also about the time when Samaria was taken; and there can be no doubt that some Phœnicians, if not some Jews, settled in these islands at a very remote period; and it is a very remarkable fact that the Welsh spoken in North Wales is said to be nearer to the old Hebrew than any other existing language, and varying no more from it than the great length of time which has passed would lead any one to expect. (Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. vi. p. 31. note.)
It should seem that some at least of the bætyli were round, and of such a size that they might be carried about by their votaries either by hanging at the neck or in some other way (Ant. Univ. Hist., vol. xvii. p. 287. x.). But probably they were originally in the shape of a pillow. In Gen. xxviii. 18., it is said that Jacob "took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it;" from which it is plain that the stone was not a sphere, but oblong and flat at the top and bottom; and probably not with square edges, as that would be most uncomfortable to lay the head upon.[[4]]
S. G. C.
Footnote 4:[(return)]
Query whether from these bætyli our ancestors derived the word beetle, which denotes a wooden maul or hammer for driving wedges. Its head is about a foot long, flat at each end, and the rest round; so that it nearly resembles a pillow in shape, and the head, together with its handle, would well resemble a stone of similar shape suspended by a cord in the middle. Bailey derives the word in this sense, and as denoting the insect, from Sax.
Thirty years ago, the coronation stone in Westminster Abbey stood under a very old chair; and was a bluish irregular block of stone, similar both in colour and shape to stepping-stones in the shallow rivers of the north of England. It is now a very nice hewn block, nicely fitted into the frame under the seat of a renovated chair. It does not look at all like the old stone of former days. Is the geological formation of the present block very difficult to ascertain?
H. R. Née F.