352 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



"rudely cast" by Liddell and Scott, but it has been sug- 

 gested that it means " native " as opposed to forged iron. 

 Still more curious are two lines mentioned by Eustathius 

 as interpolated near the opening of the fifteenth book of the 

 Iliad relating to two /nvSpoi or "lumps" cast by Zeus upon 

 Troy, ofppa irtXoiTo Kai eaao/nivoiai TrvdtaQai ; and Eustathius 

 adds : " Lumps of this kind are pointed out by the Periegetae 

 who call them anvils fallen from heaven ". 



In addition to the more or less direct evidence of which 

 the preceding are examples there is abundance of indirect 

 evidence derived from the worship of stones ; for this wor- 

 ship must, I think, have at least sometimes originated in a 

 meteoric fall. 



Jevons in his Introduction to the Study of Religion 

 traces the origin of stone-worship and of the anointing of 

 stones merely to the veneration of those which had been 

 used as altars, and this appears to be the opinion of most 

 authors upon the subject. But, although it is by no means 

 probable that most or even many of the holy stones were 

 meteorites, it is more than probable that when so remark- 

 able an event as the fall of a stone from the sky did take 

 place it must have provoked religious awe, and the stone 

 itself must generally have become an object of worship. It 

 is certainly remarkable that this origin was ascribed to 

 several of the holy stones of antiquity. 



The Diana of the Ephesians of the Acts of the Apostles, 

 the "image that fell down from Jupiter" is perhaps the 

 best known instance. 



The Caaba, or black stone of Mecca, venerated by all 

 Mohammedans, was worshipped by the Arabians in very 

 early ages, and, although it has not been seen by any one 

 specially qualified to judge, is now generally supposed to 

 have been meteoric in origin. In Sale's introduction to 

 the Koran it is stated that this stone was supposed to have 

 fallen down from heaven before the Deluge. Again 

 Maximus Tyrius says that he had actually seen a quad- 

 rangular stone which was worshipped by the Arabians, and 

 in the same passage he mentions that the Paphians wor- 

 shipped a statue of Venus which looked like a white pyramid. 



