Monday, December 07, 2020

Mavor's Missing Manitou stone

In Bebe ("Beebee") Woods, Falmouth you come across signs of ceremonialism any time you cross from A to B and pass through a new piece of woods. Parking at the end of Two Ponds Rd and stepping onto the hard-to-see path, head into the woods and take the first left. This brings you to a famous crossroads, mentioned in Manitou, in the chapter A Tract in Falmouth. We took another left at the crossroads and saw this split wedged rock, to the left after a few steps:

We continued cross country and saw this. I am showing a young friend how to spot these things.
Heading back, at the cross roads, I noticed this "manitou stone" leaning against the stone wall.
In Manitou they mention a quartz manitou stone at this same cross roads. I vaguely remember reading that Mavor considered taking that quartz stone home, since he thought it would not be long before it got noticed and stolen. But he decided to leave it in place - maybe figuring that stealing it was a poor way to prevent it being stolen. Anyway, the quartz manitou sounded like a nice artifact. I know I looked for it in the past and did not see it; but I cannot recall if Mavor noticed it was gone. 

I find it curious that there is, in fact, a nicely shaped manitou stone at exactly the same spot. Granite not quartz. Were there two different Manitou stones there? Also, I cannot find mention of the quartz manitou - maybe it was written about in some other Mavor publication. Maybe it was all a dream?

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