TIIUNDEUBOLTS 139 



Bteoplo in question was nothing]; more in its real niituro 

 than a very big inunatorial spark, llowevei, tho word 

 tlnniderbolt has survived to us from tlie days when peoplo 

 still l)eheved tiiat tlio thing whicli did the damage during 

 a thunderstorm was really and truly a gigantic white-hot 

 bolt or arrow ; arid, as there is a naturiil tendency in human 

 nature to lit an existence to every word, people even now 

 continue to inuigine that there must be actually something 

 or other somewhere called a thundi'rbolt. ^I'liey don't 

 iigure this thing to themselves as being identical with tho 

 lightning ; o)i tho contrary, they sisem to regard it as 

 something inlinitely rarer, more terrible, and more mystic ; 

 but they firmly hold that thunderbolts do exist in real life, 

 and even sometimes assert that they themselves have posi- 

 tively seen them. 



l>ut, if seeing is believing, it is C(iually true, as all who 

 have looked into the phenomena of spiritualism and 

 ' psychical research ' (modern Englisli for ghost-hunting) 

 know too well, thiit believing is seemg also. The origin 

 of the faith in thunderbolts must be looked for (like the 

 origin of the faith in ghosts and 'psychical phenomena') 

 far back in the history of our race. The noble savage, at 

 that early period when wild in woods he ran, luitu rally 

 noticed the existence of thunder and lightning, because 

 thunder and lightning arc things that forcibly obtrude 

 themselves upon the attention of the observer, however 

 little he may by nature be scientifically inclined. Indeed, 

 the noble savage, sleeping naked on the bare ground, in 

 tropical countries where thunder occurs almost every night 

 on an average, was sure to be pretty often awaked from 

 his peaceful slumbers by the torrents of rain tliat habitually 

 accompany thunderstorms in the happy realms of ever- 

 lasting dog-days. Primitive man was thereupon compelled 

 to do a little philosophising on his own account as to the 

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