Beliefs
There are a wide variety of beliefs associated with rocking stones. Because of their strange nature, rocking stones were sometimes associated with witchcraft, or Druids. Stones which were balanced so that the wind could move them were used sometimes in trials to determine guilt or innocence of the accused.
It was said that the rocking stone near Nancledrea in Cornwall could only be moved at midnight when witches were out. People claimed that if you touched the rocking stone nine times at midnight, you would turn into a witch.
The Brimham rocking stone in Yorkshire is said to rock only for the efforts of an honest man.
The rocking stone at Land's End was said to have been placed there by a giant who used it to rock himself to sleep.
It was claimed that the Logan Stone in Treen could cure childhood diseases. The children were rocked on the Logan Stone in certain seasons. People say that the charm was broken when Lieutenant Goldsmith dislodged the Logan Stone.
It is a Cornish tradition to make a vow and then attempt to move a rocking stone, or logan rock. It was said that no one with treachery in their heart could make a rocking stone move.
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Famous quotes containing the word beliefs:
“Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit; and different beliefs are distinguished by the different modes of action to which they give rise.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“If we cannot find a way to interpret the utterances and other behaviour of a creature as revealing a set of beliefs largely consistent and true by our own standards, we have no reason to count that creature as rational, as having beliefs, or as saying anything.”
—Donald Davidson (b. 1917)