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Sacred Stones 99
within seven or more cases of gold or silver gilt, in the
form of a stilpa or tumulus, each diminishing in size ; the
tooth itself rests on a golden lotus flower ; it is most highly
venerated, and but rarely exhibited to the public gaze.
Europeans who have seen it, suppose from its size and its
shape that it may be the tooth of an alligator.
That the Hindus of the Saiva sect have also adopted
this formula seems apparent from a curious old brass object
in the writer's collection, bought in the brass bazar at
Benares. At the base is a bull, one of the emblems of
Siva ; from the back of the animal rises a lotus bud, which,
on a couple of turns being given to it, expands, opens its
petals, and discloses a small agate &va or bean. On the
platform behind the bull is a cobra, with its body erect as
if in the act of striking. It has a ring in its mouth which
serves as a support to a small pointed vase perforated at
its lower end. If this vessel be filled with water, the liquid
drops slowly upon the ^^^ in the centre of the flower, and
thus a libation is poured on the j'ezvelin the flower of the lotus.
About the word Mani, as signifying a sacred stone or
line of stones :
it seems to survive in Europe in plaCe names.
If we study a local map of Brittany, we cannot fail to
be struck with the frequent recurrence of luand as the
prefix to various sites on which are dolmens or megalithic
monuments.
M. Henri IVIartin, in his Etudes Archceologiqiies Celtiques,
explains mane to be the augmentation of the Celtic word
men or maen stone
—
e.g., menhir, great stone. He adds,
that it designates equally an artificial mound or the summit
of a mountain.