Mên-an-Tol and Holed Stones

I previously posted on what may be a similar holed stone from Sicily [here]  Apparently, they are very common in the Isles, France and generally over Western Europe.

Mên-an-Tol, EBA, Cornwall, England (Zinnmann, commons)

It appears that country people have used these stones in folkloric medicine in similar ways, whether in Austria or this one in Cornwall.  Passing changeling babies or children with rickets through them seems common across Europe.  People with arthritis or back problems would crawl through them as well, and it seems that people have done this across the continent to modern times.

In various places, a bride or groom might hold their hands inside the portal to make their vows and in other cases people would swear by the stone.

This book is worth a read "Magical Medicine: The Folkloric Component of Medicine in the Folk Belief, Custom, and Ritual of the Peoples of Europe and America"  by Wayland D. Hand [Link]  (free)

"Penzance" Melissa Hardie [Link]

Country Swedes cure a bratty kid through a holed tree [Hand]