Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/555

 The Worship and Folk-Lore of Meteorites. 207

The said Schiekh Kalaph Ben Essah, who brought me this thunderbolt, is still alive and under Turkish government control at Hoodydah, near

Jeddah.

Yours truly, (Signed) Hajee Ahmed Khane Sarteep.

In order to judge properly of the above instances, it is desirable to note some in which meteorites have been treated with no regard at all.

Some of the most remarkable are those of the meteorites of Kiowa County, Kansas, which, until their meteoric nature was discovered, were put to all sorts of base uses. They were used to hold down stable roofs and covers to rain-barrels, and were buried by hogs and struck by mowing-machines. In fact, they were considered general nuisances. The Staunton County, Virginia, meteoric iron, when first found, a colored man tried to sell for a dollar. Being unable to do this, he threw it into a back yard, where it remained until it was built into a stone wall. There a dentist discovered it, and found it very useful to hammer metals and crack nuts on. Then it was built into the curbing of a cistern. There it's meteoric nature was discovered, and it has since occupied a more worthy place. The Tucson, Arizona, iron, in many respects one of the most re- markable meteorites in the world, for many years served as a public anvil in the town of Tucson. In many other instances meteorites have been used for anvils, for nut-crackers, and weights, and one served for many years as a base in a stamp mill.

It is evident, therefore, that the regard in which meteorites have been held depends wholly on whether their fall was observed or not. It was always the fall and the phenomena attending it which im- pressed the observer, and not any peculiarity in the stone, if found alone. To the finding of a piece of peculiar stone or even metal the average man attached little importance, and used the mass for what- ever purpose it proved most serviceable. When, however, he saw a stone fall from the sky, often with terrifying phenomena, all his feel- ings of awe and reverence were aroused, and he often set the stone up as an object of worship, or regarded it as possessing magic quali- ties. The instances prove that such a feeling of awe was not con- fined to savage peoples, but has often been shared by those possess- ing a high degree of civilization. Indeed, the degree of regard in which the object was held was apparently the more intense the higher the degree of civilization. The worship of these bodies by the Romans was evidently far more elaborate and enduring than that by any other people.

In striking contrast to this worship of sky stones by the Romans have been the incredulity and scorn with which, up to the beginning

�� �