What is the Blarney Stone?

Kissing the Blarney Stone

   If a person says a great many pleasant things that he doesn't really mean, someone may say, "Oh, he must have kissed the Blarney Stone." The Blarney Stone is a stone high in the wall of Blarney Castle, an ancient, ruined castle near the city of Cork in Ireland. The date 1446 was carved into the stone. Long ago the idea spread that if a person kissed the Blarney Stone he would become very clever at saying flattering things.
   No one believes now that the Blarney Stone has any real power. But every year many tourists go to see the castle. Some of them kiss the Blarney Stone just for the fun of saying that they have done so.
   Kissing the Blarney Stone is not easy. First a person must climb to the very top of the castle. Then he has to be held so that he can hang upside down over the stone railing there. Many people decide to be satisfied with kissing some other stone in the wall.