The Cockerel stone
The stones emerging from the water in Neris are special, they are called Roosters (Gaidžiai) or Cockerels (Gaideliai). They are the best measuring instruments for fluctuations of the water level – the dry part of it is dazzling white and seen from afar. This Cockerel, looming in Neris, near Krėslynai village, is the biggest river stone in Lithuania. And such a name for it was given for a reason:
There lived a man who kept a great number of roosters. The roosters used to fight each other and the weaker ones, running away from the batterers, used to jump on the stone looming in Neris. The passers-by supposedly used to say “and here’s a cockerel again”. Eventually the stone became known as the cockerel.
Here’s one more story of the old ones about this river stone, for which the rooster gave a name:
And so the devil had come up with something – nobody knows what. But he dragged a huge stone at night – that was an enormously huge stone. And so carrying that stone, here just outside Karmėlava – between Karmėlava and Jonava – apparently the twelfth hour had already struck, the rooster crows, the devil drops that stone and it disappears in Neris. And even now this stone lies down in Neris. And so now this stone is called Cockerel. And also there is a footprint on that stone, but this footprint is somehow unclear – looks like it belongs to an animal, but it’s more likely that it’s human’s. Fingers are obscure, but it’s only clear that a certain footprint has been left.
The stone could also have been named as cockerel by raftsmen, who used to raft tinder from the forests of Belarus and who used to stop by the stone for lunch or to spend the night.
The Cockerel is sticking out by the right bank of the river near Drąsei̇kiai village (Kaunas district). The residents call this place of the stone Druskelė shoal.
The length and the width of it is about 5 meters, and the height is more than 4 meters.
