THE STONE AGE PAST AND PRESENT. 223 



ore, or perhaps iron/ or a belemnite, ^eXe/xvLTT]^, so called from 

 ^iXefMvov, a dart, apparently with the idea of its being a thun- 

 der-bolt ; for this spear-like fossil is still called in England a 

 " thunder-stone." Dr. Falconer mentions the name of " light- 

 ning-bones" or " thunder-bones," given to fossil bones brought 

 down as charms from the plateau of Chanthan in tbe Hima- 

 layas," where, of course, frequent thunderstorms are seen to 

 account for their presence. But it is also believed that the 

 stone celts and hammers found buried in the ground are thun- 

 derbolts. The country folks of the west of England still hold 

 that the " thunder-axes" they find, once fell from the sky. In 

 Brittany, the itinerant umbrella-mender of Carnac inquires on 

 his rounds for pierres de tonnerre, and takes them in payment 

 for repairs ; and these are fair examples of what may be found 

 in other countries in Europe, and not in those inhabited by our 

 Aryan race alone, for the Finns have the same belief.^ The 

 remarkable Chinese account of the thunder-stones has been 

 already quoted, and it has been noticed that stone celts are 

 held to be thunderbolts in Japan and the Eastern Archipelago. 

 Even in a country where the use of stone axes by the Indians 

 is matter of modern history, and in some places actually sur- 

 vives to this day, the Brazilians use, for such a stone axe- 

 blade, their Portuguese word eorisco,'^ that is, '' lightning," 

 " thunderbolt" (Latin coruscare) . 



As the stone axes and hammers are but one of several 

 classes of objects thought to be thunderbolts, it is probable 

 that the Myth took them to itself at a time when their real use 

 and nature had been forgotten, and the reason of their being 

 found buried underground was of course unknown. This view 

 is supported by the fact of the existence of such instruments 

 being also accounted for by taking them up into mythology in 

 other ways. Thus in Japan the stone arrow-heads are rained 

 from heaven, or dropped by the flying spirits who shoot them, 

 while in Europe they are fairy weapons, albschosse, eJf-bolts, 



' Speke, Journal of Disc. ; Edin. and London, 1863, p. 223. 

 Proc. R. Geog. Soc, Feb. 25, 1864, p. 41. 



Elemm, C. W., part ii. p. 65 ; and see Castrcn, ' Finnische Mytliologie,' p. 42. 

 Pr. Max. V. Wied, ' Reise nach Brasilien ;' Frankfort, 1820-1, vol. ii. p. 35. 



