SOURCES

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called thunderstones: Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 223.—
A stone axe was put up over the house-door “for good luck,” the
original notion of the thunderstone being only faintly discernible :
Argyleshire : Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scotland, XXIV. (1890), p. 379.—
Stone axe regarded as a “ thunderbolt”; keeps all evil away from
the house : Shetland : ib. XII. (1878), p. 599.—Meteorolite, 3^ feet
long· fell in Devonshire in 1622 ; regarded as a thunderstone :
G. E. RUMPHIUS, De amboinsche Rariteit-Kamer (1741), p. 209,
12.—The Gaelic name for the thunderbolt, peileir-tarnainaich,
really means “ thunderball.”
108. Holland.—Stone axes are called donderbeitel, donder-
keil, dondersteen (see dictionary).—There is a large thunderstone,
11 feet thick (a meteorolite?) in the church in Grave: G. E.
RUMPHIUS, De amboinsche Rariteit-Kamer (1741), p. 209,6.—The
peasants let sick cattle drink water in which a thunderstone has
lain: women stroke swollen breasts with the stone: ib. pp. 210 seq.
109. Belgium.—In several places in Feluy-Arquennes the
flint arrowheads are called pointes des fees, the flint axes,
pierres a tonnerre: Revue des traditions populaires, VIII. p. 249.—
In the province of Limbourg belemnites are regarded as pierres
de tonnerre', the peasants assert that they are found in hollow
trees and are thrown down there by the lightning : ib. XVII. p. 416.
—Flint axes and other flint antiquities are regarded as pierres
de tonnerre and may be found immured in houses as a protection
against lightning: Bulletin de folklore (Bruxelles), II. p. 1 ; III.
p. 9, Nos. 67-68.—Brabantsch Sagenboek door A. de Cock en
Is. Teirlinck (1909), p. 222: “de dondersteen is gevallen,” i.e.
the lightning has struck; cf. ib. p. 182.
no. France.—a. Recent popular belief. Stone axes are
called coins de foudre or pierres de tonnerre or similar names in
the greater part of the country; in the neighbourhood of
Bayeux, however, and possibly in other places, belemnites pass
for thunderstones (clous de tonnerre') : Rev. trad, pop., VIII. p. 304.
■—They are laid under the foundations of the house or under
the threshold as a protection against lightning; they protect the
people who carry them against lightning; the peasants in Landes
carry flint arrowheads about them as amulets against thunder :