ON METEORITES, OR CELESTIAL STONES 113
water.
The Irish peasants wore the stone arrow-heads, set in silver, as
amulets for protection against injury from like weapons at the hands of
the fairies. Similar superstitions exist in the North of England.841
Nilsson believes that the "elf-shots" (the arrow-points or axe-points)
of the Irish peasantry are identical with the "Lap-shots" of the
Swedish peasantry. These stones were thought to have belonged to the
Laplanders, the "black elves" of the Edda, and were therefore used as a
protection against the witcheries of these elves. The idea that the
substance or thing that has caused an injury can effect a cure of this
injury, appears in the Edda.85
The shepherds in the French Alps value the "thunder-stones" (peyros de tron) very
highly. They are handed down from father to son as precious heirlooms,
and when the flocks are driven to the pasturage, one of these
wonderworking stones is embedded in a tuft of wool on the back of the
bell-wether ; this is supposed to serve as a protection for the whole
flock.86 In iSpain the peasants call these stones piedros del rayo, or "lightning-stones." 87
The
names bestowed on such prehistoric stone implements by the inhabitants
of the Malay Archipelago, of Java and Sumatra, all indicate that they
are believed to have fallen from the sky. In Malacca they are called batu gontur, "lightning-stones," and in Sumatra we have the name anak-pitas, "child
of the lightning." In the island of Nias, near Sumatra, they are worn
as amulets on the head or attached to the sword. The Watubela islanders
denominate them "teeth of the thunder," a name which suggests the
appellation glossopetra ("stone-tongue"), and like this is evidently
- Henderson, " Folk-lore
of Northern England," pp. 185, 186. " Nilsson, " The Primitive
Inhabitants of Scandinavia," trans, by th« author and ed. by Sir John
Lubbock, 3d ed., London, 1868, pp. 200, 201. " Toumier, Bull, de la
Soc. S'Anthrop., 1874, p. 386. " Bull, de la Soc. d'Anthrop., 1860, p.
96. 8
