nd, and that it was
operating in a country dominated by scientific thought is the
phenomenon which makes it so important to consider psychological
conditions among the problems of folklore. They account for some
beliefs which may not contain elements of pure tradition. When the
Mishmee Hill people of India affirm of a high white cliff at the foot
of one of the hills that approaches the Burhampooter that it is the
remains of the "marriage feast of Raja Sisopal with the daughter of the
neighbouring king, named Bhismak, but she being stolen away by Krishna
before the ceremony was completed, the whole of the viands were left
uneaten and have since become consolidated into their present
form,"[256] we can understand that the belief is in strict accord with
the primitive conditions of thought of the Mishmee people. Can we
understand the same conditions of the parallel English belief
concerning the stone circle known as "Long Meg and her daughters,"[257]
and of that at Stanton Drew;[258] or of the allied beliefs in Scotland
that a huge upright stone, Clach Macmeas, in Loth, a parish of
Sutherlandshire, was hurled to the bottom of the glen from the top of
Ben Uarie by a giant youth when he was only one month old;[259] and in
England that "the Hurlers," in Cornwall, were once men engaged in the
game of hurling, and were turned into stone for playing on the Lord's
Day; that the circle, known as "Nine Maidens," were maidens turned into
stone for dancing on the Lord's Day;[260] that the stone circle at
Stanton Drew represents serpents converted into stones by Keyna, a holy
virgin of the fifth century;[261] and that the so-called snake stones
found at Whitby were serpents turned into stones by the prayers of the
Abbess Hilda.[262] These are only examples of the kind of beliefs
entertained in all parts of the United Kingdom,[263] and they seem
based upon psychological, rather than traditional conditions.

The giant and the witch, or wizard, are terms applied to the unknown
personal agent. "The two standing stones in the neighbourhood of West
Skeld are said to be the metamorphosis of two wizards or giants, who
were on their way to plunder and murder the inhabitants of West Skeld;
but not having calculated their time with sufficient accuracy, before
they could accomplish their purpose, or retrace their steps to their
dark abodes, the first rays of the morning sun appeared, and they were
immediately transformed, and remain to the presen