114 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
derived from the form of certain of these prehistoric celts.88 The
Burmans have given the highly poetic name of "rainbow-disease" to the
disorder known to us as appendicitis, and they use the axe-heads and
other pointed or sharpened arrow-heads of the Stone Age for the cure
of this malady, stroking the region affected with one of these
implements. The natives share in the delusion almost universal among
primitive peoples, that these stone implements have fallen from the sky
during thunder-storms, and that they partake of the nature of
thunderbolts ; hence they are supposed to destroy the rainbow-disease,
as the approach of heavy storm clouds, charged with lightning, darken
the sun and put an end to the beautiful natural phenomenon.
In
the island of Mindanao, one of the Philippine group, the heathen
Manobos called the thunder the "speech of the lightning," and regarded
the latter as a kind of wild animal, so that whenever the lightning
struck the earth or a tree they believed that the animal had buried its
teeth in the spot. They therefore looked upon any stone implement found
there as one of these teeth.89
The ancient stone hammers found in Japan are called rat fu sehi, "thunderbolts," or tengu no masakari, "battle-axes of Tengu," the warder of the heavens. Other stone implements bear the name "fox-axes," or i'fox-planes."
These peculiar designations are employed because the fox is a symbol of
the devil, and the stone axes are regarded as weapons of the devil. Of
course this in no wise prevents their use as amulets or medicinally;
indeed, their powder is thought to be an especially effective remedy
for boils and ulcers. Many such stones may be seen in the temples, where
"Morgan,
"Matériaux pour l'hist. primitive," Paris, 1885, p. 484; Vernano!
Beri. Anthrop. Gee., 1879, p. 300; Von Rosenberg, "Der Malayische
Archipel," Leipzig, 1878, p. 175.
" Semper, " Die Philippinen," Würzburg, 1869, p. 61.
