In my 87 year old aunts home in South Schodack NY is a stone by her fire place. On this stone is hand carved a small H. As she has explained it is not for say Hudson Hawk.....it stands for Hogaboom.. An old Dutch name and on my mothers side of ancestors. From what I have been able to glean from brief family oral histories and old tales from Great Aunts these were semi important stones to the old Dutch colonists. One of the uses for them were to be kept by the fire place and kept warm and brought to bed with you to help warm you on a cold winters night. I suppose they might also have been used as a simple tool of sorts. But what intrigues me is the use of them as a good luck charm of sorts. Apparently , these rocks were taken from stream beds or found while cultivating fields. They were most often egg shaped and smooth. Why egg shaped ? Some Dutch legends appear to say that was so that evil or bad luck could slide off them or could not easily attach.
My mother had one as well in her home she used as a door stop. I don't know how prevalent this belief may have permeated people back then in say 17th century New York but superstition has effected people throughout history. Just look at The Icabod Crane story. So , a brief bit of tangential oral history , a piece that I am told will some day be mine. I shall put it by my fire place.
My mother had one as well in her home she used as a door stop. I don't know how prevalent this belief may have permeated people back then in say 17th century New York but superstition has effected people throughout history. Just look at The Icabod Crane story. So , a brief bit of tangential oral history , a piece that I am told will some day be mine. I shall put it by my fire place.
