FABLE AND FOLKLORE 247 



once, being the noise from each wing. The arrowheads 

 fired by the thunder are found in many parts of the 

 country. They are of black stone and of very large 

 size." The last statement may refer to meteoric stones, 

 or it may be purely fanciful. A common belief among 

 the farmer-folk of Europe is that the smooth, chisel- 

 shaped tools or weapons of prehistoric (Neolithic) men, 

 frequently turned up by the plow, and known technically 

 as "celts," are thunderbolts; but this is only incidental 

 to the present theme. 



The raven is a hero-bird among the Cherokees, who 

 say that he became black by attempting to bring fire 

 from a hollow tree that had been set on fire purposely 

 by "the Thunderer" by means of lightning. The bird 

 did not succeed, and blackened its plumage forever. 



In Japan the ptarmigan, a dweller on mountain-tops, 

 is called rai-cho, "thunder-bird," and is "sacred to the 

 God of Thunder," as Weston expresses it, adding that 

 "pictures of them are often hung up in farmers' cot- 

 tages as a charm against lightning." 



Thunderstorms are usually accompanied by much 

 wind, and the common conception of birds as the agent 

 of wind, or the wind itself, has been exhibited briefly 

 in another chapter; it prevailed not only among our 

 American Indians but in various other parts of the 

 world, including South Africa — or did, when men were 

 less skeptical of such ideas than now. In ancient San- 

 skrit mythology the delicate white cirrus cloud drifting 

 overhead was a fleeting swan, and so also was it in the 

 creed of the early Scandinavians and to our wild Nava- 

 hoes — a good illustration not only of independent and 

 parallel images for an idea, but of the likeness of human 

 minds under great diversity of race and conditions. 



