Marvellous tales are often told of rocks. There is, for example, a tradition of a nobleman being engaged in the chase, or pursued by his enemies, without being hurt; whose horse left the prints of his feet on a mass of stone, over which he passed. But, unhappily for the tale, other impressions have been observed besides those of the horse’s feet; and it is affirmed by various naturalists, deserving of credit, that they must have been made by very different animals, at a remote period, before the stone had completely hardened. Other instances of the same kind might easily be given. In the British Museum, there is a slab having similar impressions, obviously produced by the same means. It was dug from a great depth; a mass of stone, many feet in thickness, having been formed above the layer which received, in a soft state, the impression from the feet of several animals. Other impressions, of which we read or hear, are nothing more than tricks of art. Such, most probably, is the impression of the foot of Budda upon the Peak of Adam, at Ceylon; the print of the foot of the idol Gaudama, in the Burmese empire, which has been three times reproduced; and most certainly this is the case with the so-called impressions of the feet of our blessed Lord and Saviour, shown to the present day, on Mount Olivet. The cave of St. Paul, at Civita Vecchia, the former capital of the island of Malta, is an excavation, about nineteen feet in height, and fifty in circumference; in a soft, white, limestone rock, more friable than chalk. A belief that the stone was endowed with miraculous medical virtues, led people to carry away large quantities of it during the sway of the knights. In 1770, when visited by Brydone, the cave was in the highest celebrity; not only every house in the island had a medical chest of it, but large quantities were sent to different countries in Europe, and even to the East Indies. It was supposed to have a miraculous power which preserved it from diminution; which may be accounted for by a natural law--the calcareous process of formation still going on--while its healing power is to be attributed to its having some of the properties of magnesia; which leads, according to Dr. Walsh, to its still being given as a purgative-sudorific in eruptive or fever complaints. One instance of gross superstition, as connected with rocks, is too important to be omitted. The trial by ordeal appears to have been very early practised among the Celtic tribes of Europe, who were always under the influence of an artful and domineering priesthood. Thus, it is said that in cases of doubtful accusation the Druids made use of the rocking-stones which were common in Britain, and that the culprit was acquitted or condemned according as he succeeded or failed in shaking them. Mason alludes to this trial in the following lines:--