[a. HARVEY] AEROLITES AND RELIGION 71 



The American Indiuiis have from time immemorial regarded aoroH tes 

 as sacred objects. Many specimens of meteoric iron have been found 

 near the "' altars " in the mounds of Ohio. One is an amulet in the shape 

 of a large ring, and another, figui"ed and described by Mr. (1. F. Kunz, in 

 the American Journal of Science, has still in it the point of a copper 

 chisel, which broke otf as the aborigine was trying to split the mass. In 

 the Dacotah wmter counts {vide Eeport of the United States Bureau of 

 Ethnology, 1882-83) there are symbols for the fall of an aerolite in 1821 22, 

 and the explanation given of the two separate " counts " is " Large ball of 

 tire with hissing noise," and " a large roaring star fell." The meteorite in 

 Victoria College Museum, of which Prof. A. F. Coleman has given an 

 analysis in the Transactions of this society, is alluded to by the Eev. 

 Geo. McLean, now of Port Arthur, in his " Indians in Canada." For long- 

 ages, he tells us, the natives say it lay there, and they attributed to it 

 mysterious powers, he thinks on account of its weight (specific gravity 

 7-784). Though many had tried to lift it, all had failed, and when they 

 heard the white men had taken it away they put their hands to their 

 mouths and said, '^ The white man is very strong." They much regretted 

 its removal, and their medicine men prophesied that evil Avould come 

 upon the tribes and the buttalo forsake the country. The Rev. J. Mac- 

 dougall, of Mori ey ville, whose father had it removed, tells the writer that 

 the place where it fell was named on its account Pe-wah-bisk Kah-ah-pit 

 or 'the iron, where it lay."' Though it had been there from time im- 

 memorial, the Indians knew it had fallen from heaven. On passing the 

 place, or anywhere near it, the}^ would go to the spot and leave upon it a 

 piece of tobacco, a broken arrow-head, or some such ottering, for they 

 wished the spirit which had sent it to protect them, or at least not to 

 intei'fere with them in their forays. They also thought it had grown, 

 because their foi*etathers could lift it, while the}^ could not. 



There was an aerolite at Wichita, Kansas, which in a similar way the 

 tribes there reverenced. We can after this reflect without surprise on 

 the great aerolite j)laced on the Aztec pyramid of Chobila or those set on 

 other Mexican teocal lis. 



Mr. Iveary, in his " Outlines of Primitive Belief," speaks of the con- 

 ical shaped stones and the stumps which were conspicuous in the religions 

 of the Syrians and Phœnicians as fetishes, and as perhaps connected with 

 Phallic worship, and thus almost contemptuously dismisses the subject. 

 " Phallic worship " is a good term to conjure by. It serves the mytholo- 

 gist as the glacial theory has served the geologist, to explain everything 

 otherwise inexplicable, or as the term " subjective mind " now serves the 

 psychologist to unravel the knotty questions of mind-reading and second- 

 sight. Surely the above examples of the creeds of various simple peoples 

 are enough to show the real state of the belief of prehistoric men in 

 Europe and Asia, as regards these heaven-sent stones. 



