DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52552#0136
120
THE THUNDERWEAPON
130. West Sudan.—Les noirs. ..considerent les haches
polies, et en general, tous les caillous polls, comme des pierres
de foudre...D’apres eux, lorsque la foudre tombe en un endroit,
elle y projette une hache polie : c’est elle qui occasionne les
degats, et il devient indispensable de 1’extraire, sinon la foudre
tomberait de nouveau au meme endroit. Mais on s’exposerait
aux plus grands malheurs en cherchant a retirer cette pierre
de foudre ; ou en touchant aux personnes ou aux animaux
foudroyes. Il faut avoir recours au Faiseur de pluie.
His mode of proceeding is then described, and it is said that
in winter they avoid mentioning the word sankalima (i.e. thunder-
stone), which may attract the lightning: Fr. DE ZELTNER, in
E Anthropologic, XVIII. 1907, p. 542 (from the neighbourhood of
Yelimane and Nioro).
131. Other parts of Africa.—Stone axes as amulets :
Tschitimbe (Lake Tanganyika): ANDREE, Parallelen, II. p. 40
(quoting Livingstone’s Travels').—Among the Monbuttus (Central
Africa) prehistoric stone axes pass for thunderstones; “such
axes are often found in the trees they have struck”; they are
handed down as talismans from generation to generation: Z.f. E.,
16 (294).—Among the Niam-Niam people stone axes are sup-
posed to have fallen from the sky and are the object of worship :
Brill, de I’institut egyptien, 1886, No. 14 (according to DE Na-
daillac, Moeurs et monuments des peuples prehistoriques, p. 13).
132. North America.—Both in North and South America
the notion that thunder is caused by a large bird is widely
spread: see e.g. TYLOR, Primitive Culture, II. pp. 237 seq. (An
Eskimo picture of the thunderbird is given by HOFFMANN,
Graphic A rt of the Eskimos, pl. 72.) We have a few records of
stone implements being regarded as thunderstones, but cir-
cumstances always suggest the probability of the idea having
been imported from Europe: see TYLOR, loc. tit.·, A. Lang,
Myth, Ritual and Religion, II. (1887), p. 61.
133. South America.—For the thunderbird, see No. 132.
From several places there are records of thunderstones as stone
implements, but they are always given under European names
(Portuguese, Dutch, etc.); scholars are no doubt right in
supposing the idea to have been brought in by the Europeans
THE THUNDERWEAPON
130. West Sudan.—Les noirs. ..considerent les haches
polies, et en general, tous les caillous polls, comme des pierres
de foudre...D’apres eux, lorsque la foudre tombe en un endroit,
elle y projette une hache polie : c’est elle qui occasionne les
degats, et il devient indispensable de 1’extraire, sinon la foudre
tomberait de nouveau au meme endroit. Mais on s’exposerait
aux plus grands malheurs en cherchant a retirer cette pierre
de foudre ; ou en touchant aux personnes ou aux animaux
foudroyes. Il faut avoir recours au Faiseur de pluie.
His mode of proceeding is then described, and it is said that
in winter they avoid mentioning the word sankalima (i.e. thunder-
stone), which may attract the lightning: Fr. DE ZELTNER, in
E Anthropologic, XVIII. 1907, p. 542 (from the neighbourhood of
Yelimane and Nioro).
131. Other parts of Africa.—Stone axes as amulets :
Tschitimbe (Lake Tanganyika): ANDREE, Parallelen, II. p. 40
(quoting Livingstone’s Travels').—Among the Monbuttus (Central
Africa) prehistoric stone axes pass for thunderstones; “such
axes are often found in the trees they have struck”; they are
handed down as talismans from generation to generation: Z.f. E.,
16 (294).—Among the Niam-Niam people stone axes are sup-
posed to have fallen from the sky and are the object of worship :
Brill, de I’institut egyptien, 1886, No. 14 (according to DE Na-
daillac, Moeurs et monuments des peuples prehistoriques, p. 13).
132. North America.—Both in North and South America
the notion that thunder is caused by a large bird is widely
spread: see e.g. TYLOR, Primitive Culture, II. pp. 237 seq. (An
Eskimo picture of the thunderbird is given by HOFFMANN,
Graphic A rt of the Eskimos, pl. 72.) We have a few records of
stone implements being regarded as thunderstones, but cir-
cumstances always suggest the probability of the idea having
been imported from Europe: see TYLOR, loc. tit.·, A. Lang,
Myth, Ritual and Religion, II. (1887), p. 61.
133. South America.—For the thunderbird, see No. 132.
From several places there are records of thunderstones as stone
implements, but they are always given under European names
(Portuguese, Dutch, etc.); scholars are no doubt right in
supposing the idea to have been brought in by the Europeans