Stone-worship--Mysterious Properties of Stones--Symbolism of Gems --Gnostics--Abraxas Gems--Gems in Sarcophagi--Life-stones--Use of Amulets in Scotland--Yellow Stone in Mull--Baul Muluy--Black Stones of Iona--Stone as Medicine--Declan's Stone--Curing-stones still used for Cattle--Mary, Queen of Scots--Amulet at Abbotsford --Highland Reticence--Aberfeldy Curing-stone--Lapis Ceranius and Lapis Hecticus--Bernera--St. Ronan's Altar--Blue Stone in Fladda --Baul Muluy again--Columba's White Stone--Loch Manaar--Well near Loch Torridon--Stones besides Springs--Healing-stones at Killin-- Their connection with Fillan--Mornish--Altars and Crosses--Iona-- Clach-a-brath--Cross at Kilberry--Lunar Stone in Harris-- Perforated Stones--Ivory--Barbeck's Bone--Adder-beads--Sprinkling Cattle--Elf-bolts--Clach-na-Bratach--Clach Dearg--Lee Penny-- Lockerbie Penny--Black Penny. We have already seen that in early times water was an object of worship. Stones also were reverenced as the embodiments of nature-deities. "In Western Europe during the middle ages," remarks Sir J. Lubbock in his "Origin of Civilisation," "we meet with several denunciations of stone-worship, proving its deep hold on the people. Thus the worship of stones was condemned by Theodoric, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the seventh century, and is among the acts of heathenism forbidden by King Edgar in the tenth, and by Cnut in the eleventh century." Even as late as the seventeenth century, the Presbytery of Dingwall sought to suppress, among other practices of heathen origin, that of rendering reverence to stones, the stones in question having been consulted as to future events. It is not surprising therefore that stones had certain mysterious properties ascribed to them. In all ages precious stones have been deservedly admired for their beauty, but, in addition, they have frequently been esteemed for their occult qualities. "In my youth," Mr. James Napier tells us, in his "Folklore in the West of Scotland," "there was a belief in the virtue of precious stones, which added a value to them beyond their real value as ornaments.... Each stone had its own symbolic meaning and its own peculiar influence for imparting good and protecting from evil and from sickness its fortunate possessor." By the ancient Jews, the topaz and the amethyst were believed to guard their wearers respectively against poison and drunkenness; while the diamond was prized as a protection against Satanic influence. Concerning the last-mentioned gem, Sir John Mandeville, writing about 1356, says, "It makes a man stronger and firmer against his enemies, heals him that is lunatic, and those whom the fiend pursues and torments." By certain sects of the Gnostics, precious stones were much thought of as talismans. Among the sect founded by Basilides of Egypt, the famous Abraxas gems were used as tokens by the initiated. The Gnostics also