Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/199



Stone Celts.—In Mr. C. W. King's Early Christian Numismatics and other Antiquarian Tracts, 8vo. 1873, there is a very learned and interesting dissertation on the widely prevalent notion that stone axes or celts are thunderbolts. One line in this paper however requires correction. Mr. King states, "No such notion with respect to celts has ever been current in this country" (p. 238). We have evidence of the existence of this belief in Cornwall. The Rev. R. Polwhele in his Traditions and Recollections, Domestic, Clerical, and Literary, 2 vols. 8vo. 1826, tells us that "For the reumatis boiled dunderbolt is a sovereign remedy, at least in the West of Cornwall. I knew an old woman who used to boil a celt (vulgarly a dunderholt or thunderbolt) for some hours, and then dispense her water to the diseased. The wonder with her was that none of the celt would ever boil away."—Vol. ii. p. 607.

In W. Jerdan's Autobiography there is a passage which is confirmatory of this, but as I have not the book at hand I cannot give a more exact reference.

In a review, by Sir Henry Dryden, of Mr. George Low's Tour through the Islands of Orkney and Schetland, which appeared in The Academy of July 26, 1879, we read: "The natives, it appears, gave the name of 'thunderbolt' to the stone axes or celts, and here we may notice that, among nations of Celtic as well as Teutonic origin, this name is assigned to these instruments The elf arrows were the instruments wherewith the fairies or witches injured their cattle, and so the possession of them prevented further attacks by these imps. A thunderbolt, concealed under the eve of a house, protected the dwelling from fire. Low mentions the discovery at Northmavine of seven celts arranged in a circle, with the points towards the centre. It is a curious fact that in the museum at Nantes are eight celts which are stated to have been found in that neighbourhood in a similar position." P. 72.