Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/551

 The Worship and Folk-Lore of Meteorites. 203

(ceremonial worship) to it. Some time after it was taken possession of for the collections of the British Museum.

SabetmaJimet, India} — This stone was decked with flowers, anointed with ghee, and subjected to frequent ceremonial worship and coatings of sandal-wood powder. It was placed on a terrace constructed for it at the place where it struck the ground, and a sub- scription was made for the erection of a shrine.

Ogi, Hizen, Japan? — Two stones which fell here, according to one account, December 10, 1744, were used for more than 150 years as offerings annually made in the temple in Ogi to Shokujo on the festival of that goddess the 7th day of the 7th month. The belief among the Japanese was that the stones had fallen from the shores of the Silver River, Heavenly River, or Milky Way, after they had been used by the goddess as weights to steady her loom. One of these stones is now largely preserved in the British Museum.

Kesen, Iwate, Japan? — A meteorite which fell here in 1850 was preserved in a temple many years, and worshipped as an idol. Por- tions of it are now to be found in many collections.

Krasnq/arsk, Siberia. — Here a mass of iron weighing 1500 pounds was long in place. The first European to visit it was the traveller Pallas, in 1771. He reported that the mass was regarded by the Tartars of the vicinity as "a holy thing fallen from heaven." 4 Ex- amination of the mass made since Pallas's day proves it beyond ques- tion to be meteoric.

Ensisheim, Alsace, Germany. — Here a stone weighing about 300 pounds fell November 16, 1492.

The Emperor Maximilian had the stone brought to the neighbor- ing castle, and a council of state was held to consider what message from heaven the stone fall had brought them. As a result the stone was hung up in the church with an appropriate legend, and with the strictest command that it should ever remain there intact. It was held to be an omen of import in the contest then in progress in France and in the contest impending with the Turks. 6 At the time of the French Revolution it was taken down by iconoclasts, and broken into a number of pieces. One large piece, however, is still preserved in the Town Hall of Ensisheim.

Duritma, East Africa? — This stone weighing about a pound fell March 6, 1853. It was picked up by some shepherd boys, and of these some German missionaries tried to buy it. The barbarous tribe of Wanikas, however, hearing of the fall, took the stone to be

1 Records of the Geological Survey of India, 1885, vol. xviii. p. 237.

2 Flight, /. c. p. 166.

3 Brezina, Ann. k. k. Naturhist. Hofmtscnms, Wien, Bd. x. p. 257.

4 Fletcher, /. c. p. 20. 6 Newton, /. c. p. 3. 6 Buchner, /. c. p. 86.

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