“BLOOD STONE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 May 1938, Page 4

“BLOOD STONE”

USE BY DRUIDS "The blood stone,” a crystal ball believed to have been used by Druids and witches and to have evilly influenced humanity since centuries before Christendom, was auctioned at Christie's in London last month. Although the afternoon's bidding was brisk —the previous lot, a Louis XVI. snuff box, fetched 295 guineas—the appearance of the small crystal ball, silver-mounted, hung on an ebony stand, seemed to chill the dealers. A German offered two guineas. The owner, a West End connoisseur, bought it back for £3O, a fraction of its value. He stated in an interview: “The thing fascinates me, yet I never know whether T want to keep it or get. rid of it. Recently it has lain quietly in two or three collections' and seems to have done no harm. But I believe it has a sinister history.” At the British Museum an expert said: “A few of these stones have been, dug up from the tombs of ancient Britons. This l one was found at Chatham in the sixteenth century. It is supposed to have been used- by witches, giving them fantastic powers. It was buried 1 with a woman, probably some high priestess of evil, for Druids prized' the crystals greatly and used them for calling down spiritual fire and the presence of gods.”