Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/554

 206 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

French, being in temporary control of the country, in mockery of the saying, threw the iron into the fountain. But it proved true to its reputation, for in 1776 the French rule being ended, the towns- people lifted it out of its pit, and set it back in the place to which tradition had said it would return.

The Gibbs Meteorite. — This is a mass of meteoric iron weighing 1690 pounds now in the Yale Museum. The first white man to see it was Captain Anthony Glass, who in 1808, when trading among the Pawnees in Texas, was shown the mass by the Indians. He states that they regarded the mass with great veneration, and attributed to it singular powers in the cure of diseases. 1

Ncjed, Central Arabia. — The belief that meteorites are the solid substance of thunderbolts has been not uncommon, and is quite natural when one considers the phenomena attending their fall. One of the most interesting records of such a belief is found in a letter which accompanied the Nejed meteorite now in the British Museum : 2 —

In the year 1282 after the death of Mahomed, when Mame Faisale Ben Saoode was governor and general-commander-in-chief of the Pilgrims, residing in a valley called Yakki, which is situated in Nagede, in Central Arabia, Schiekh Kalaph Ben Essah, who then resided in the above-named valley, came to Bushire, Persian Gulf, and brought a larger thunderbolt with him for me, and gave the undermentioned particulars concerning it.

In the spring of the year 1280, in the valley called Wadee Banee Khaled, in Nagede, Central Arabia, there occurred a great storm, thunder and lightning being particularly prevalent ; and during the storm an enormous thunderbolt fell from the heavens, accompanied by a dazzling light, similar to a large shooting star, and it imbedded itself deeply into the earth. During its fall the noise of its descent was terrific. I, Schiekh Kalaph Ben Essah, procured possession of it, and brought it to you, it being the largest that ever fell in the district of Nagede. These thunderbolts as a rule only weigh two or three pounds, and fall from time to time during tropical storms.

The above concludes the narrative of Schiekh Kalaph Ben Essah.

I myself saw in Africa four years after the above date a similar one, weighing 133 pounds, to that which Schiekh Kalaph Ben Essah brought to me, and the Sultan of Zanzibar, Sayde Mayede, obtained possession of it, and forwarded it to Europe for the purpose of having it converted into weapons. For this reason I have forwarded my thunderbolt to London (as when melted and made into weapons, they were of the most superior kind and temper), considering it one of the wonders of the world, and may be a benefit to science.

1 Amer. Jour. Set. 1st ser. vol. viii. p. 218.

2 Fletcher, Min. Mag. vol. vii. p. 179-

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