On one side lay the ocean, and on one
Lay a great water;
and close at hand they beheld an old woman driving a white cow down to the lake. She drove the cow right into the water, and struck her with a stick, whereupon the cow was metamorphosed into a rock. One of the fishermen got so angry at the sight that he struck the woman; and both he and she were turned into stones. The rock and stones are still to be seen. “The cow used to rise up out of the lake and walk about the island when any great event was about to happen; but it is now more than thirty years since she was last seen.” From this cow the island takes its name (Inis-bo-finne, the Island of the White Cow).[129.1] In the south-west of Ireland is a cliff called Fail Mahisht, once the daughter of the king of the White Nation and wife of Finn MacCumhail, whom she won by playing at chess with him for a wager. The condition was that he was to be her husband until he had seven shovelfuls of earth put on his head. After various adventures Diarmaid fulfilled the condition, and with a blow of his fist sent the lady spinning through the air until she fell at the water’s edge, where she now stands, and from that day to this gives food to the people of Erin from the limpets and periwinkles that cluster upon her beyond any other cliff in Ireland.[130.1] The heroic cycle of Ireland as now found in the mouths of the people is full of tales of petrifaction from a blow;[130.2] but how far they are now believed as records of fact must be regarded as more than doubtful, whatever might have been the case at the time the legend of the Enchanted Cave, already mentioned, was written. No such uncertainty seems to rest on the Sardinian tale concerning a stone on the side of the Montesanto of Mores. It is called Saint Elisha’s Stone, and was once a man whom the saint threw from the top of the mountain and, when he saw him fast below, called out: “Dost thou stand well?” “Yes, sir,” replied the stone; and there it remains immovable.[130.3]
The mixed population of Missouri tell a story, probably of Indian origin, about a beautiful but mysterious witch, who seduced the young braves, and with a touch from her right hand turned their hearts into stone. The people, fearful of attacking her, waited long for vengeance from on high to repay her iniquities. She used to feed on fish that came out of the river in response to her call. One day she went down to the water and summoned the fish in vain. At last, after she had uttered in her rage and impatience words that would dismay devils, there came up a little fish like silver. She essayed to swallow it; but it swelled and stuck in her throat, and at length stiffened into stone. In her agony she clutched her throat and beat her breast with the fatal hand. So now she stands upon, and part of, the rocky bluff on the banks of the Missouri.[131.1]
At Jaunpur, in India, is the shrine of Kerárbír, where a great stone is the object of worship. The stone in question is part of the body of the giant-demon Kerar, slain by Rámchandra for his wickedness.[131.2] Two rocks observed in descending the pass of Markundi into the valley of the Son, in Mirzapur, are worshipped and connected with the flight of two lovers from a barbarian king who ruled at the fort of Agori. One of these rocks was cloven by a blow of the fugitives’ sword; the other is the pursuer’s elephant, decapitated by the same means.[131.3]
Divine vengeance, without any visible or audible intervention, has often been invoked in various parts of the world to account for the existence of rocks and stones. Niobe, weeping for her children slain by Apollo, was turned to stone, as anybody, says Pausanias, may reasonably be persuaded. She stood, a rock, on Mount Sipylos in Bœotia, and in summer-time was reported to weep.[131.4] Such, too, was the fate which overtook Lot’s wife. Her legend doubtless grew up to account for some prominent pile on the cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea; and perhaps the archæologists who are now striving to rehabilitate the writings of Moses will point out the crag and prove the truth of the story. Of course they will be equally ready and willing to prove a thousand other tales. Let me mention a few equally authentic.
I pass over instances like those of the Stone-woman near the village of Moras in the department of Isère, France, manifestly a mere transplantation of the Biblical tradition.[132.1] There are cases, however, in which the crime of looking back in disobedience to an express taboo has been punished by petrifaction, and where the connection with Lot’s wife is by no means so easily proved. Once upon a time the Hindu saint, Sri Dharamnathji, was doing penance in the jungle near Pattan. His disciple Gharibnáthji used to beg alms in the city, but as the people were not charitable he was obliged to maintain himself by carrying bundles of firewood and selling them in the town. From the proceeds he purchased flour, which a shepherd’s wife baked for him, adding a loaf from herself. The sage, “observing the bald patch on his disciple’s head caused by the loads he carried, cursed the city to be swallowed up. He had previously warned the shepherd’s wife to leave the place and not look back. The city was swallowed up; and the woman, disobeying the saint’s command, was turned into a stone.”[132.2]
Here the destruction of the city was caused by niggardliness towards a personage of supernatural power. Another Indian saga shows us this crime punished by petrifaction. Near the village of Dudhi, in South Mirzapur, are two stones, once a bride and bridegroom who were thus transformed by an angry bhút, or malevolent spirit. His proper offerings had been forgotten, and he wrought his vengeance in this way.[132.3] Sometimes the fault is breach of tribal custom or social convention. When a rajah’s daughter made a rash vow only to wed him who could count the palm-trees within view of her father’s palace, and a low-born wizard fulfilled the condition, the earth herself interfered and, rather than allow so shameful a marriage to be accomplished, she turned the princess into a stone, which now lies within the ruined fort of Rájá Sahay, protected from human touch by a number of enormous snakes.[133.1] Among the Gonds of Central India, the bride goes in procession to the bridegroom, instead of his coming to her, as is usual among the Hindus. It is intended in this way to prevent the repetition of the catastrophe which overtook a luckless pair who were about to be married in the ordinary way. The youth, borne on his uncle’s shoulders in the procession, came within sight of his bride, and unable to restrain his impatience he leaped to the ground and looked with all his might to the place where he expected to see her. She felt no less eager, and their eyes met. In a moment not only the young couple but also the bridegroom’s uncle were turned into sandstone spires yet visible on the road in descending into the valley of the Narbada over the Vindhyan range from Bhopál.[133.2] The same cause may perhaps be understood in an Enganese tale accounting for a block of coral and a rock bearing some resemblance to human form off the coast of the island, near the anchorages of Baraháu and Kai-Kokoh. The one represents a husband who was deserting his wife because he found she had a disgusting malady, and the other the deserted wife.[133.3] It is more obvious in the case of two stones in the tanks near the temples at Arang, in the Ráepur district of India, and at Deobáluda. The erection of the pinnacle of a temple is the act of completion; and it seems that it is necessary to be performed naked. These two temples were built simultaneously. When they were ready to receive their pinnacles the mason and his sister agreed to put them on at the same auspicious moment. Stripping themselves according to custom, they climbed to the top. As they reached it, each could see the other, and each through shame jumped down into the tank beneath and was changed into stone. Both stones are visible in seasons of drought, when the water in the tanks is low.[134.1]
Petrifaction in the traditions of Christian Europe, when directly inflicted by divine intervention, is usually the punishment of a serious infraction of the divine law, often amounting to lèse-majesté. Various stone circles in Cornwall, such as the Hurlers, the Nine Maids and the Merry Maidens, were once human beings transformed for Sabbath-breaking by hurling or dancing.[134.2] Stories of this kind are commonplace all over Europe. We will be satisfied with the following samples taken from Germany and Bohemia. The legend of the two stone Jews at Ottorowo on the crossroad to Krzeszkowice, in the province of Posen, relates that these culprits suffered metamorphosis for profaning a crucifix.[134.3] In the neighbourhood of the town of Gabel in Bohemia stand three blocks of stone surmounted by crosses. They were girls who went to work in the fields on Easter Sunday. They carried their disregard of holy things so far as to mock when the sanctus bell sounded at the completion of the sacred rite; and each time it rang they threw up to heaven the sickles they were using to cut the grass. The third time the sickles fell not down again, and the girls were turned into stone. Near Commotau, in the same country, lie seven great stones, once girls who led an evil life, and were therefore transformed.[135.1] In Styria the same penalty fell on a maiden who would spin on Sundays. A violent storm destroyed the hut wherein she dwelt and transported her to the top of a neighbouring rock, where she stands for ever, a warning against blasphemy and greed.[135.2] On some pasture lands not far from Jevenstedt stands a stone circle with two larger stones in the midst. These were a bridal party who danced on Sunday during divine service.[135.3] Bridal parties in the West as in the East seem specially obnoxious to the displeasure of the higher powers. In Altmark, near Dahrendorf, not far from the Hanoverian border, is a large piece of granite surrounded by smaller stones, formerly a bride, named Lene, from the state of Hanover, who with her attendants was changed, no one knows why, into stone. We have already met with several other instances. A circle of stones near Wirchow, in Neumark, was a party of persons who added to their scorn of Whitsunday the shameless eccentricity of dancing naked, and are now called the Adam’s Dance. It has ever been held by the folk a grave misdemeanour to treat with wanton disrespect the necessaries of life; and singular judgments have, both in this country and elsewhere in Europe, fallen on such as have dealt improperly with bread and other common kinds of food. Seven boys were thus turned into stone, and are still to be seen near the little town of Morin in Neumark.[135.4] Let us hope that the children of the district are duly impressed by their awful doom.
Similar to the fate of the Styrian maiden was that of a pair of lovers in Sardinia, who in consequence of the opposition of their families to their union entered, the one a monastery, and the other a nunnery. But love triumphs over even the vows of celibacy. The young monk escaped from his convent, carried off his sweetheart and lived with her in the wilds. The infraction of their vows could not, however, be passed over. God raised one day an impetuous wind, which transported the lovers to the top of Monte Ruju, where they rest changed into stone.[136.1]
On the western continent are to be found many legends accounting for rocks of peculiar form as human victims of supernatural caprice. The Zuñi tradition mentioned in a previous chapter is but one example of many. Mrs. Stevenson, who reports this tale, also records the tradition of an allied people, the Sia, concerning two brothers of ancient days, the culture-heroes of their tribe, renowned for giant-slaying and other feats. On two occasions they went disguised as poor, dirty, beggar-boys to villages of the Oraibi and the Katsuna where feasts were being held. They were refused food save by one family at each place; and the people were in consequence turned into stone.[136.2] More frequently, perhaps, in aboriginal folklore the metamorphosis is suffered by a fugitive. In such cases it seems a little doubtful whether the pursuers are thus foiled or satiated of their revenge. The story of the Peruvian goddess, Cavillaca, will be remembered in this connection.[137.1] “There is a Winnebago tradition that a woman carrying her child was running from her enemies, so she jumped down a steep place and was turned into a rock. And now when they [the Winnebagoes] pass that place they make offerings to her.”[137.2] A similar saga of the Nasqually Indians of British Columbia is told to account for an isolated rock on the coast.[137.3] Many other instances are to be found.