Τ
IS somewhat difficult to obtain trustworthy accounts regarding the
occurrence of meteorites in medieval and ancient times, as there was a
strong tendency to confuse the real meteorites with flint arrow-heads
and hatchets derived from the stone age. A number of interesting facts
bearing on the history of certain real or supposed aerolites were given
in a recent lecture delivered by Prof. Hubert A. Newton in New Haven,
Conn.1 Some of the more striking instances are here presented.
As
an illustration of the way in which meteorites may have come to be
reverenced in former times, we have the modern instance of a stone that
fell in the region north of Zanzibar, on the East African coast, and
was seen and picked up by some shepherd boys. At first all the efforts
of the German missionaries to buy this stone were fruitless, because
the neighboring Wanikas looked upon it as a god, and, after securing
possession of it, proceeded to anoint it with oil, clothe it with
apparel and decorate it with pearls. They also built a temple wherein
the stone received divine honors. This worship endured for some time,
but when, three years later, the nomad tribes of the Masai swooped down
on the Wanikas and burned their villages and massacred many of the
inhabitants, the Wanikas lost all respect for the stone and were glad
to part with it. This conduct was, after all, not entirely
unreasonable, since the fetish had failed to prove its divine power.
This occurrence in the nineteenth century may well be
1 American Journal of Science, 4th Ser., vol. iii, pp. 1-13, New Haven, 1897. 72
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