In treating of the flint arrow-heads of the American Indians, Adair notes that in form and material they closely resembled the “elf-stones” with which European peasants were wont to rub any of their cattle believed to have been “shot” by fairies or elves. A village in which one of these magic objects existed was considered to be particularly favored by fortune, as they not only served to protect the cattle from bewitchment but were equally efficacious in preserving human beings from the spells of witches.[[200]]
In East Prussia, when cows are believed to have been bewitched so that their milk is under a spell, resort is had to the powers of a perforated “thunder-stone.” Such stones were ancient stone hammers with a central perforation for a handle. The stone is held beneath the cow at milking-time, and the milk is allowed to pass through the perforation.[[201]] By this means the spell is broken and the milk becomes harmless.
Such perforated stones are also used to protect a house from being struck by lightning. When a storm approaches nearer and nearer, the owner of one of these magic stones will thrust his finger through the hole, twirl the stone around three times, and then hurl it against the door of the room. When this has been done, the house is believed to be proof against lightning.[[202]]
In Westphalia the stone is laid upon a table alongside of a consecrated candle, the shrewd peasants thus assuring for their houses the protection of the church as well as that of the ancient God of Thunder.[[203]]
Another phase of the superstition in regard to the stone axes known in many different parts of the world as thunder-stones, because they are believed to have fallen during a thunder-storm, is given by Dr. Lund in a letter written from Logoa Santa in Brazil. He states that the inhabitants rather look askance at these stones, believing that wherever they are found the lightning is apt to strike, “in order to seek its brother!”[[204]]
By courtesy of the British Museum, London.
FLINT AMULETS OF THE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD, EGYPT
The stone implements of various forms found in the shell-heaps of Brazil are called by the natives Curiscos or “lightning-stones.” The Guaranis name them “stars fallen from heaven”; the Cajuas, “stones hurled by the thunder”; and the Coarados, “axe-stones.” A high price is paid for these by the gold-seekers in Brazil, who believe that, by attraction, they show the presence of gold beneath the surface, just as the divining-rod is supposed to be affected by the presence of water or by hidden treasures.[[205]]
The peasants of Slavonic descent in Moravia have great faith in the virtues of the “thunder-stone.” During Passion Week the stone has the power to reveal the location of hidden treasures, and it is also believed that warts on man and horse will disappear if they be rubbed with such a stone before sunset. However, not only healing virtues are attributed, for if the stone be hurled at anyone and strikes him, it inflicts a mortal wound.[[206]]
A poetic and appropriate name has been applied to the earliest of the chipped stone artefacts of primitive man by archæologists. They are called “Dawn Stones” (eoliths), and the name characterizes these interesting relics, the first steps in the development of sculptural art, as products of the dawn of human civilization.