t time in the shape
of two tall moss-grown stones of ten feet in height."[264] This is
paralleled by the Merionethshire example of a large drift of stones
about midway up the Moelore in Llan Dwywe, which was believed to be
due to a witch who "was carrying her apron full of stones for some
purpose to the top of the hill, and the string of the apron broke, and
all the stones dropped on the spot, where they still remain under the
name of Fedogaid-y-Widdon."[265] Giant and witch in these cases are
generic terms by which the popular mind has conveyed a conception of
the origin of these strange and remarkable monuments, whether natural
or constructed by a long-forgotten people; and we cannot doubt that
such beliefs are generated by the peasantry of civilisation from a
mental conception not far removed from that of the primitive savage.
Neither their religion nor their education was concerned with such
things, so the peasants turned to their own realm and created a myth
of origins suitable to their limited range of knowledge.

It may perhaps be urged that such beliefs as these are on the
borderland of psychological and traditional influences. Witches and
giants certainly belong to tradition, but on the other hand they are
the common factors of the natural mind which readily attributes
personal origins to impersonal objects. I am inclined on the whole to
attribute the beliefs attachable to the unexplained boulders or
unknown monoliths to the eternal questionings in the minds of the
uncultured peasants of uncivilised countries similar to those of the
unadvanced savage. That the peasant of civilisation should confine his
questionings to the by-products of his surroundings and not to the
greater subjects which occupy the minds of savages, is only because
the greater subjects have already been answered for him by the
Christian Church.[266]

There is a point, however, where psychological and traditional
conditions are in natural conjunction, and I will just refer to this.
That matters of legal importance should be preserved by the agency of
tradition has already been shown to belong to that part of history for
which there are no contemporary records, and its importance in this
connection has been proved. Equally important from the psychological
side is the fact that law is also preserved by tradition where people
are unaccustomed to the use of writing, or by reason of their
occupation have little use for writing. To illustrate thi