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92 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
cloud came
from the north, and shot forth sparks like rockets, smoke rising from
it like a furnace; at the same time a series of explosions was heard,
not so much resembling the sound of thunder as that produced by the
firing of cannon or the discharge of many muskets. The cloud remained
suspended in the air for some time, during which many stones fell to
the earth, some of which were found. One of them is described as being
of irregular form, with a point like a diamond ; it weighed about five
pounds and gave out a "vitriolic smell." Another weighed three and a
half pounds, was very hard, of the color of iron, and "smelled like
brimstone." 39
The
following passage written in the fourteenth, or perhaps in the
thirteenth century, shows considerable accuracy of observation:40
There
are some who fancy that the thunder is a stone, for the reason that a
stone often falls when it thunders in stormy weather. This is not true,
for if the thunder were a stone, it would wound the people and animals
it strikes, just as any other falling stone does. However, this is not
the ease, for we see that the people who have been struck by thunder
(sic) show no wounds, but they are black from the stroke, and this is
because the hot vapor burns the blood in their hearts. Therefore, they
perish without wounds.
The
fall of a siderite twenty miles east of Lahore in India, on April 17,
1621, is reported in contemporary records. From this iron, which
weighed about 3^ pounds, the Mogul Emperor Jehangir ordered two sabres
to be made, as well as a knife and a dagger, and commanded that the
fact should be properly registered. Here, as in other similar cases,
the weapons were believed to possess a quasi-
** King, " Remarks Concerning Stones said to have Fallen from the Clouds," London, 1796, p. 4.
40
Megenberg, " Buch der Natur," ed. Pfeiffer, Stuttgart, 1861, p. 92.
(This is based on Thomas de Cantimpré's "Liber de natura rerum,"
written about 1240.)
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