Roman Mosaics; Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood
John Stuart Mill · en
In the Killarney region is the promontory of Coleman's Eye--so called
after a legendary person who leapt across the stream, and left his
footprints impressed in the solid rock on the other side. These
impressions are considered Druidic, and are pointed out as such to the
curious stranger by the guides. Near an old church situated on the
southern slope of Knockpatrick, in the parish of Graney in Leinster,
there is a large flat granite rock with the impression of two feet
clearly defined on its surface. Local tradition assigns these
footprints to St. Patrick, who addressed the people on this spot, and
left behind these enduring signs of his presence. Allusion is made to
them in St. Fiaca's Hymn to St. Patrick--"He pressed his foot on the
stone; its traces remain, it wears not." Footprints in connection with
St. Patrick are to be found in many localities in Ireland, as, for
instance, on the seashore south of Skerries, County Dublin, where the
apostle landed; and at Skerries, County Antrim, there are marks which
are believed to be the footprints of the angel who appeared to St.
Patrick. In Ossory two localities are noted as possessing St.
Patrick's footprints.
So common are the curious sculptures under consideration in Norway and
Sweden, that they are known by the distinct name of _Fotsulor_, or
Footsoles. They are marks of either naked feet, or of feet shod with
primitive sandals. On a rock at Brygdaea in Westerbotten, in Norway,
there are no less than thirty footmarks carved on a rock at an equal
distance from each other. In other parts of Norway these footprints
are mixed up with rude outlines of ships, wheels, and other
_haellristningar_, or rock-sculptures. Holmberg has figured many of
them in his interesting work entitled _Scandinaviens Haellristningar_.
At Loekeberg Bohnslau, Sweden, there is a group of ten pairs of
footmarks, associated with cup-shaped hollows and ship-carvings; and
at Backa, in the same district, several pairs of feet, or rather
shoe-marks, are engraved upon a rock. In Denmark not a few examples of
artificial foot-tracks have been observed and described by Dr.
Petersen. One was found on a slab belonging to the covering of a
gallery in the inside of a tomb in the island of Seeland, and another
on one of the blocks of stone surrounding a tumulus in the island of
Laaland. In both cases the soles of the feet are represented as being
covered; and in all probability they belong to the late stone or
earlier bronze age. With these sepulchral marks are associated curious
Danish legends, which refer them to real impressions of human feet.
The islands of Denmark were supposed to have been made by enchanters,
who wished for greater facilities for going to and fro, and dropped
them in the sea as stations or stepping-stones on their way; and
hence, in a region where the popular imagination poetises the
commonest material objects, and is saturated with stories of elves and