Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/79

Rh preference to metal to pierce or cut the wax or clay images which were once commonly used to represent the intended victims of the rites in question.

Turning to Ireland, we find that there, too, the medicinal use of the flint arrowhead has long been known, for two centuries ago (in 1709) we find mention of a "thunderbolt or head of a spear" from Kerry, and down to 1865 the Irish continued to put celts in the troughs at which they watered their cattle, and in county Antrim neolithic flint arrowheads are used as amulets. In the north of Ireland generally, where polished diorite celts are often turned out of the ground, Mr. Lovett states that there was a time when every cottage kept one on the rafter as a safeguard against lightning.

Of Whitby, Robinson has stated that the ancient British flint "arrow-points" were called "elf-shots," that cattle suddenly excited were formerly supposed to be shot at with these implements by the fairies, and that to cure an "elf-shotten" animal it must be touched with one of these arrows, and the water administered in which an arrow has been dipped. And Johnson quotes Dr. Hickes, in a letter to Pepys (1700), as describing these elf-bolts, clearly believing that they were driven straight to the hearts of cattle. Sir J. Evans states that in the north of England the celt is called a thunderbolt, and in the west country a thunderaxe. Again, in Cornwall, as elsewhere generally, the celt Avas boiled in water, which was used as a remedy against rheumatism. Of course, if there were any object in doing so, such facts could be indefinitely multiplied, but the important thing to note is that Mr. Lovett has stated that he knows places in England where such "thunderbolts" as tangible objects are quite unknown. The earliest