cerrig wrote:
the story about drinking stones seem to be countrywide. i don't know about other stones, but i have posted some info about" Maen Llia" that you may find interesting. a similar phenomenon may occur elsewhere but i'm not aware of it.
the info is on the Maen Llia page with some comments from Rhiannon.
cerrig
There's a wonderful (and comical) engraving by Louis Meaulle in the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs showing the stones of Carnac going down to the sea for a swim. "...once in a hundred years, at exactly midnight on Christmas, the menhirs of Plouhinec appear at the river to take a drink. There's a hex on anyone who dares question these "facts.""*the info is on the Maen Llia page with some comments from Rhiannon.
cerrig
Perhaps the stone/water connection harks back to stones with healing properties. Again Layamon's poem, Brut, of 1215 describing Stonehenge -
The stones are great
And magic power they have
Men that are sick
Fare to that stone
And they wash that stone
And with that water bathe away their sickness
* Standing Stones by Jean-Pierre Mohen. pp16-17. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-30090-9