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The belief that the nightmare
was caused by a wicked hag or ogress named "Mara" crushing or trampling on
a person during sleep was common among the Teutonic races, and is only
recently extinct in Scotland,—if indeed it really be so. The Mara was also
in the habit of taking horses out of their stables during the night and
riding them about; and horses so ridden were found in the morning with
tangled manes and bodies dripping with sweat. A "self-holed" stone, or
naturally perforated pebble, known as a “hag-stone“ in England and as a
“mare-stane” in Scotland, hung about the bed or in the stable was
sufficient to keep the Mara at a distance. Butler refers to these
perforated stones in Hudibras in speaking of Lilly the astrologer who
could—
“Chase evil spirits away by dint
Of sickle, horse-shoe, hollow flint.”
Pennant mentions his having been told by a farmer at Pentonlins,
Dumfriesshire, “that a pebble naturally perforated was an infallible cure,
hung over a horse that was hag-ridden, or troubled with nocturnal sweats.”
The same custom was followed in Nithsdale in 1766. In Angus the stone was
one such as is “often found by the sea-side or on the banks of a river,
with one or more natural holes in it.” There is no specimen of a mare-stane,
so called, in the National Museum, such as has been used to protect horses
from being mare-ridden, but there is a naturally perforated pebble of
greenstone which was hung up in a byre at Cumbernauld, Dumbartonshire, to
protect the cattle from witchcraft.
A small pebble of greenish sandstone, with two perforations, and with
the name William H Scott scratched on one face, found in the ruins of an
old cow-byre in Dumfriesshire, is also in the National Museum.
In the Ynglinga Saga is an account of King Yanland, who was bewitched
by a Finnish sorceress (seidkonu) named Hulda, who caused him to be
trampled to death by a “mara.” Three “mare-stanes” formerly used at
Marykirk, near Montrose, were exhibited at a meeting of the
Anthropological Institute, in June 1877, and described as follows:-
“One of the stones has two human teeth inserted and fixed in the
natural holes in the stone. It was known to have been seventy years in one
house, and was given to Mr A—, of Marykirk, by an old lady. She had used
it to ward off bad dreams.
“The other two are thus described by the person who procured them:—
‘Mare-Stanes were very common in this district (Marykirk), and many are
used yet, but those who are in possession of them do not like to own it.
They are still common in the fishing villages along our coast. “‘The old
grandfather of Mrs N. sometimes comes to Marykirk on a visit, brings his
mare-stane in his pouch, and hangs it in his bed. He comes from Stonehaven,
and is an old fisherman.
“‘Sandy M.’s wife, while she stayed at B., always kept the mare-stane
in the bed; and a Mrs G., of Edinburgh, a lady who came to B., many years,
always liked that stone in her bed.
“Old Susan S. assures me that when the females of a house had all the
work, and were ‘stinted’ to do a given amount of work at the
spinning-wheel before they got any supper, and so much before they went to
bed, they were very liable to take the ‘mare’ (i.e., nightmare) owing to
anxiety connected with their stints, and the ‘stane’ was a regular
preventative. Married ladies, she says, when in an interesting condition,
were very particular in having the mare-stane in the proper place, and she
has known ‘stanes’ hung in byres, behind cows expected to calve, to ensure
safety.”
A “mare-stane” now in the Museum was obtained a few years ago by
Sergeant M’Millan of the Wigtownshire Constabulary, who found it in actual
use at Gordieston Mill, Dalry, Galloway. It is a small
naturally-perforated concretion of flint, and was kept hung within the bed
for the purpose of keeping away the nightmare and evil dreams. A second “
mare-stane” found in use in Penninghame Parish was, after a good deal of
persuasion, secured by Sergeant M’Millan for a number of jubilee coins. In
a letter to me Sergeant
M’Millan says, the old woman in whose possession it then was, stated
that her mother, her grandmother, and herself kept it hanging at the bed
head “for luck.” The day after the stone was sold, its late owner walked a
distance of six miles to the sergeant’s house to get it back again,
stating that “she had not got one single wink of sleep the previous night,
and that she could account for it in no other way than by the fact of her
having parted with the charm. Being assured that she should have it
returned to her, she set off on her six mile journey home, and no doubt
she has the charm doing duty in her bed at the present day.”
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