1§03.] On Stones, & 
fiance, and Brant, the author of “* Navis 
Stultifera Mortatium,” has made this ftone 
the fubject of fome poems.* 
One of the fragments of the ftone was ful 
pended’and preferved in the church of Enfi- 
{heim till within thele ‘ew years,when it wes 
conveyed to the library of Colmar, and 
there depofited. It weighs 150 pounds, 
notwi-hiianding the {pécimens which have 
been detached from ir. 
The next fa& of this kind to which we 
thall refer, is extracted from the Memoirs 
of the Empevor J-hangire, written; by , 
himfe!f, in the Perfian lancuage, and 
tran flated by Colonel Kin ‘patrick. 
Early, {% “ys he, on the 3o'h of Furver- 
deen, of the prefent year (1620), and in 
the eattern quarter of the heavens, there 
arofe in. one of the vill laces of the purgun- 
nahof Jalindher, about 100 miles fouth-eaft 
of Lahore, fuch a great and tremendous 
notfe as had nearly by its dreadful nature 
deprived the inhabitants of the place of 
their fenfés. During this ncife a lumi- 
nous body was obfe rved to fall from above 
on the earth, fuggelting to the beholders 
the idea that the firmament was raining 
fire. In a fhore time, the noife having 
fubfided, and the inhabitants having re. 
covered from their alarm, a courier was 
difpatched by them to Mahommed Syeed, 
the Aumil or filcal feperintendant of the 
Purgunnah, to advertize hit of the event. 
The Aumil, nfantly mounting his horfe, 
proceeded to the {pot where the luminous 
body had fallen. Here he perceived the 
earth, to the extent of ten or twelve yards 
in Jeneth and breadth, to be burnt to fuch 
a degree, that not the leaft trace of ver- 
dure, or even a blade of grafs was to be 
feen, nor had the heat communicated to 
it entire ly fublided . 
Mahommed Syeed direSted the ground 
to be dug, when, at length, a lump of 
iron was found, the heat OF which was fo 
intenfe that it might have been fuppoled 
to have bren taken from aturnace. It 
became cold, when the Aumil conveyed 
it to his own habitation, from whence he 
difpatched it to court. Here it was 
weighed, and found equal to about four 
pounds. [was committed to adkilful ar- 
tizan, with orders to make of it a fabre, 
a knife, and a dagger. [he workman re- 
ported, that the (ubfance was not mallea, 
ble, but thivered into pieces under the hum- 
mer. Up nihis, it was ordered to be mix. 
ed with ctner iron; viz. three parts of the 
* De Fulgetro immani jam nuper, anno 
¥492, prop Bafileam, &c. In variis Sebai- 
tigni Brant Carminibus. Bafil, 1498. 
¢. faid to have fallen from the Clouds. 
433 
iron of lightning to one of common iron, 
and from this mixture were made two 
fabres, one knife, and one dageer, which 
were found equal to the beit blades formed 
in the ufual way. The following com- 
plimentary lines, were made on the occa= 
fion, and prefented to the emperer Jenan- 
Qire : 
‘* In his time fell raw iron from lightning, 
That iron was, by his world-fubduing au- 
thority, : 
Converted in‘o a dagger, a knife, and two 
fabres 7” 
The chronogram of this occurrence is 
contained in words which fignify the 
‘* flame of the imperial lightning,’’ and it 
gives the year of hegira 1030, which an- 
fwers to A. D, 1620*. 
To an account of fome fragments of 
iron found at Plann, near Tabor, a town 
of Bohemia, July 3, 1753, is {ubjoined a 
note, which fays, that credulous people 
aflert that they fell trom heave) during a 
thunder-fiorm.+ Thefe fragments are 
faid to have weighed from one to twenty 
pounds each, and fome of them were feen 
by the Right Hou. Charles Greville, in 
Baron Born’s colleGicn.t 
At Luce, in Le Maine, a fone of feven 
pounds weight was found on the 13th of 
September 176%, while it was even hot, 
by perfons who faw it fall. The Abbé 
Bacheley prefented it to the Royal Aca- 
demy, under whole aufpices, it was ana- 
lyied, by the celebrated and ever to be de- 
plored Livoificr, and from his account 
the Academicians concluded that the ftone 
did not owe its origin to thunders; that 
it did not fall from heaven; that it was 
not formed by mineral /ubftances fufed 
by lightning; and that it was nothing 
but a {pecies of py‘ites, without peculiar- 
Ity, except as to the hep tic fineil di‘en- 
gaged fi Nt it by marine acid. The me- 
moir is, however, concluded, a oblerv= 
ing it to be (ufficiently fingular, that M. 
Morand le Fils had prefenced a fragiment 
f ftone from the environs of Coutances, 
ne {aid ro have fallen from heaven, which 
only differed trom that of the Abbe Bache. 
ley in not exhaling the hepatic finell 
with the marine acid. 
The fall of the ftones, known under the 
name of the itones of Agen, has been con- 
* Philof. Tranf, 1803, part 1. page 2c0, 
204. 
t Que (fragmenta) 3 Julii anni 1753, 
inter tonitrua, e c@lo piuifle, creduliores qui- 
dam afierunt. 
{ Philof, Tranf. 1802, part I, page 179, 
180. 
firmed 
