METEORITES IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 359 



and that fiery thunderbolts were falling. At length they 

 recovered courage and went to the place where the thunder- 

 bolt had fallen. To their amazement they found here, in a 

 small cavity a black stone half embedded in the earth, and 

 still hot. It felt very heavy. They searched in vain for 

 the other stone in the wood ; but the next day a similar 

 stone was found in a neighbouring field." 



Fall of the Mazapil Iron, 1885. 



" It was about nine in the evening when I went to the 

 corral to feed the horses, when suddenly I heard a loud 

 hissing noise exactly as though something red-hot was 

 being plunged into cold water, and almost instantly there 

 followed a somewhat loud thud. At once the corral was 

 covered with a phosphorescent light, and suspended in the 

 air were small luminous sparks as though from a rocket. 

 I had not recovered from my surprise when I saw this 

 luminous air disappear, and there remained on the ground 

 only such a light as is made when a match is rubbed. A 

 number of people from the neighbouring houses came 

 running towards me, and they assisted me to quiet the 

 horses which had become very much excited. We all 

 asked each other what could be the matter, and we were 

 afraid to walk to the corral for fear of being burned. 

 When in a few moments we had recovered from our 

 surprise we saw the phosphorescent light disappear, little 

 by little, and when we had brought lights to look for the 

 cause, we found a hole in the ground and in it a ball of fire. 

 We retired to a distance fearing it would explode and harm 

 us. Looking up to the sky we saw from time to time 

 exhalations or stars which soon went out, but without noise. 

 We returned after a little and found in a hole a hot stone 

 which we could barely handle, which on the next day we 

 saw looked like a piece of iron. All night it rained stars, 

 but we saw none fall to the ground, as they seemed to be 

 extinguished while still very high up." 



But it is not necessary to multiply instances. It is clear 

 that in ancient times and in the middle ages meteoric falls 

 were often recorded and were implicitly believed by ordinary 



