Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/550

 202 Journal of American Folk- Lore.

object in the great temple at Ephesus, which was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world. It was said to have fallen from heaven, and its name, Diipetes, signified "fallen from the sky." While the copies which were made of it and widely circulated during the first century are not representations of a stone, they are, in the opinion of Professor Newton, idealized forms of what was originally a stone having the characters of a meteorite.

In addition to the above seemingly well-defined instances of the worship of meteorites by the Greeks and Romans, there are others indicated by coins known to have been struck by different rulers. Many of these coins bear the figure of a stone mounted as if on a shrine, while the accompanying inscription tells of the fall. The fact that the occurrence was commemorated by a coin indicates that the object was considered one of ominous import. The Imperial Museum at Vienna possesses much the largest collection of these coins known. The coins there shown tell of the fall of meteorites in Macedonia, Attuda, Cyprus, Cyrrhus, Emisa, Mallas, Perga, Pola, Sardis, Pierian Seleucia, Sidon, Synnada, Tripolis, and Tyre. 1 They were struck by the following rulers or their associates : Philip II., Alexander III., Augustus, Caligula, Vespasian, Trajan, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, Septimius Sev- erus, Julia Domna, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Annia Faustina, Maesa, Julia Soaemias, Alexander Severus, Maximinus, Gordianus Pius, Tranquillina, Philippus pater, Phillippus filius, Valerian, Gallienus, Salonina, Aurelian, and Tacitus. It is to be hoped that the history of these individual coins will be some time carefully investigated.

Coming now to more modern times, many instances of meteorites held in reverence may be recorded in the Old World.

Durala, India. — Here a stone weighing about twenty-five pounds fell February 18, 1815. The natives believing it to be of heavenly origin procured means to have a special temple built over it, 2 but the East India Company took possession of the stone, and sent it to the British Museum, where it is now largely preserved.

Saonlod, India? — A shower of about forty stones fell here Janu- ary 19, 1867. The terrified inhabitants of the village seeing in them the instruments of vengeance of an offended deity, gathered all the stones they could find, and having pounded them to powder, scat- tered them to the winds.

Nedagolla, India. — This meteoric iron fell January 23, 1870, with brilliant light and explosive sounds. The people of the village were much alarmed, carried the mass to their temple, and made punja

1 Annalen des k. k. Naturhist. Hofmuseums, Wien, Bd. x. p. 236.

2 Buchner, Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen, p. 36.

3 Flight, A Chapter in the History of Meteorites, p. 150.

�� �