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375
The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
126
The
natives
of
Burma,
China,
Japan,
according
to
Blinkenberg
(Thunder
Weapons,
p.
100)--not,
of
course,
that
Blinkenberg
accepts
one
word
of
it--think
that
carved
stone
objects
have
fallen
from
the
sky,
because
they
think
they
have
seen
such
objects
fall
from
the
sky.
Such
objects
are
called
"thunderbolts"
in
these
countries.
They
are
called
"thunderstones"
in
Moravia,
Holland,
Belgium,
France,
Cambodia,
Sumatra,
and
Siberia.
They're
called
"storm
stones"
in
Lausitz;
"sky
arrows"
in
Slavonia;
"thunder
axes"
in
England
and
Scotland;
"lightning
stones"
in
Spain
and
Portugal;
"sky
axes"
in
Greece;
"lightning
flashes"
in
Brazil;
"thunder
teeth"
in
Amboina.
The
belief
is
as
widespread
as
is
belief
in
ghosts
and
witches,
which
only
the
superstitious
deny
today.
As
to
beliefs
by
North
American
Indians,
Tyler
gives
a
list
of
references
(Primitive
Culture,
2-237).
As
to
South
American
Indians--"Certain
stone
hatchets
are
said
to
have
fallen
from
the
heavens."
(Jour.
Amer.
Folk
Lore,
17-203.)
If
you,
too,
revolt
against
coincidence
after
coincidence
after
coincidence,
but
find
our
interpretation
of
"thunderstones"
just
a
little
too
strong
or
rich
for
digestion,
we
recommend
the
explanation
of
one,
Tallius,
written
in
1649:
"The
naturalists
say
they
are
generated
in
the
sky
by
fulgurous
exhalation
conglobed
in
a
cloud
by
the
circumfused
humor."
Of
course
the
paper
in
the
Cornhill
Magazine
was
written
with
no
intention
of
trying
really
to
investigate
this
subject,
but
to
deride
the
notion
that
worked-stone
objects
have
ever
fallen
from
the
sky.
A
writer
in
the
Amer.
Jour.
Sci.,
1-21-325,
read
this
paper
and
thinks
it
remarkable
"that
any
man
of
ordinary
reasoning
powers
should
write
a
paper
to
prove
that
thunderbolts
do
not
exist."
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