infamous and excluded from society.  In the old churchyard of the ruined monastery of Saints Island in the Shannon, there is an ancient black marble flagstone called the “Cremave” or “swearing stone.”  The saints are said to have made it a revealer of truth.  Any one suspected of falsehood is brought here, and if the accused swears falsely the stone has the power to set a mark upon him and his family for several generations.  But if no mark appears he is known to be innocent.  Many other equally interesting instances might be quoted all akin to the superstition in Rome.  It is not too fanciful to suppose that even the Jewish mode of making a covenant had something to do with this primitive custom.  The animal offered in sacrifice was divided into two pieces, and so arranged that a space was left between them.  Through this space, between the parts, the contracting persons passed in order to ratify the covenant.  We have a striking account of this ceremony in the case of Abraham; and it is in allusion to it that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says that we have boldness to enter into the holiest “by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”

The superstitious practices connected with clefts and holed stones were denounced by councils of the Christian Church, which subjected transgressors to various penalties.  Consequently this mode of worship came into evil repute; and what was formerly considered a meritorious action, securing the cure of disease or future happiness, became a deed of evil, to be followed by some calamity.  For this reason the primitive symbolism was reversed in many cases, such as “passing under a ladder,” which is now considered unlucky; or in Eastern lands going between a wall and a pole, between two women or two dogs, which the Talmud forbids as an omen of evil.

Passing from the subject of holed stones I proceed to consider another class of interesting prehistoric objects that survive in the more primitive churches of Rome.  In the same church of Sta.  Maria in Cosmedin—­where the Bocca della Verita which I have described occurs—­there is a curious crypt called the chapel of St. Cyril, who undertook a mission about the year eight hundred and sixty to convert the Slavs in Bulgaria to Christianity, and suffered martyrdom in the attempt.  Beside an ancient altar of primitive construction on one side is preserved a large slab of granite on which St. Cyril is said to have knelt when he was put to death; and half-sunk in the wall opposite are two large, smooth, dark-coloured stones, in shape not unlike curling stones—­or an orange from which a portion has been sliced off horizontally.  They cannot fail to be seen when attention is directed to them.