ON METEORITES, OR CELESTIAL STONES 109
rather look askance at these stones, believing that wherever they are found the lightning is apt to strike, "in order to seek its brother!"73
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.74
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.75
A
poetic and appropriate name has been applied to the earliest of the
chipped stone artefacts of primitive man by archœologists. 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.
A
curious survival of the adoration of stones is reported by the Earl of
Boden in his "Progress of the Reformation in Ireland. " 76 A correspondent informed Lord Roden that
** Lund, " Om de Sydamericanske Vildes Steenöxer," Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighed, Copenhagen, 1838-1839, p. 159.
"Rath, in Globus, vol. xxvi, p. 215 (Braunschweig, 1874).
"Koudela and Jetteies in Anthrop. Gesellsch. Wien, vol. xii, p. 159 (1882).
'* Quoted by Sir J. E. Tennant in Notes and Queries, vol. v, 1852, p. 121 (No. 119, Feb. 7, 1852).
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