The two smaller ones reposed loosely upon gneissic rocks, but Ahnighito, found on a small island some six miles away, on a terrace 80 feet above tide-water and about 100 feet from the shore, lay almost buried in rocks and sand.

Eskimo legend had woven its web about these enigmatic meteorites and the natives saw in them an Innuit woman, who with her dog and tent had been hurled from the sky in a bygone age by Tornarsuk, the Evil One. Originally the mass called “The Woman” was said to have closely resembled the figure of a woman, seated and engaged in sewing, but by the gradual chipping away of fragments of the iron this form had almost disappeared. Peary was told that not long before, the “head” had fallen off and that a party of Eskimo had tried to carry it away, lashed to a sledge; however, as they were passing over the ice, it suddenly broke up, so that sledge, iron and dogs sank in the water and the Eskimo themselves barely escaped with their lives.

The dimensions of Ahnighito, the largest siderite ever discovered, are given as follows: length, 10 feet 11 inches; height, 6 feet 9 inches; thickness, 5 feet 2 inches. It weighs something over 36½ tons. The weight of “The Woman” is 3 tons, and that of “The Dog” 1100 pounds. The chemical compositions of these three siderites, which are regarded as having originally constituted a single mass, have been determined by J. E. Whitfield. In addition to small quantities of copper, sulphur, phosphorus and carbon, the following proportions of the main constituents were ascertained:^[178]

Though smaller and less imposing by its mass than the greatest of the Cape York meteorites, that called “Willamette” from having been found two miles northwest of the town of that name in Clackamas County, Oregon, ranks as the fourth, or possibly the third largest iron meteorite in the world, and is the largest discovered within the territory of the United States; remarkable peculiarities of form make it an especially interesting object.^[179] It was a chance find, made in 1902 by two prospectors in their search for gold or silver. Noting what appeared to be a very slight rock projection they tapped this with their hammers and the sound of the blow revealed the presence of metal; digging down here and there, they ascertained the existence of a considerable mass of iron. Although at first no one supposed that it was a meteorite, before long this fact became known, and the finder, by very primitive methods and by dint of tireless efforts, succeeded in transporting the iron to his own land. His courageous attempt to acquire possession of it was not, however, crowned with success, as the courts decided that the company owning the land whereon it had been found possessed the right to reclaim it from the finder.

When weighed on the railroad scales in Portland, Oregon, the net weight of this siderite was shown to be 31,107 pounds. The most striking peculiarity is the abundance of pittings and hollows and their unusual size. That these resulted in part from the effects of the enormous heat generated by the swift flight of this weighty mass through the earth’s atmosphere, is generally admitted; but some of the deepest pits are believed to owe their origin to the decomposition of spheroidal nodules of troilite, and the cylindrical holes to the decomposition of rod-like masses of the same substance. Willamette, which was donated to the American Museum of Natural History, by Mrs. William E. Dodge, is 10 feet long, 6 feet 6 inches high, and has a thickness of 4 feet 3 inches.^[180] Chemical analyses have been made by Mr. J. M. Davison of the University of Rochester and by J. E. Whitfield of Philadelphia. Their respective determinations are here given:

The famous Cañon Diablo meteorite possesses a surpassing mineralogical interest.^[181] In 1891, at the Tenth International Geologic Congress, Washington, D. C., the mineralogist Koenig announced that he had discovered some microscopic diamonds in this meteorite, and later investigations by Prof. Henri Moissan confirmed this discovery and enlarged its scope. A mass of the iron weighing about 400 pounds was used by Professor Moissan; this was cut by means of a steel ribbon saw. As had been the case in Koenig’s investigations, the saw soon encountered excessively hard portions that obstructed its operation, so that twenty days’ labor was requisite to separate the iron into two parts, each with a section area of nearly 100 square inches. On close examination it became evident that the obstacles to the cutting consisted of round or elliptical nodules, of a dark gray to black hue, and enclosed in the bright iron. These nodules were mainly composed of troilite (iron protosulphide). After chemical treatment an insoluble residue remained, consisting of silica, amorphous carbon, graphite and diamond. Many of these very minute diamonds were black, but a few were transparent crystals, octahedrons with rounded edges.^[182] The presence of this diamond material in the interior of the iron mass of the meteorite indicates their formation from carbon by the combined agencies of high temperature and great pressure, as in the case of the artificial diamonds experimentally produced by Moissan in an iron mass first subjected to intense heat in the electric furnace and then rapidly contracted in volume by sudden chilling. The fervid imagination of early writers would certainly have attributed wonderful talismanic powers to stones like these, probably generated in some lost planet and reaching our earth through the wastes of celestial space, could they have been able to observe and distinguish them with the incomplete optical resources of their time.

The first announcement of the discovery of these diamonds from the Cañon Diablo meteorite was made by Dr. A. E. Foote, and not long after Professor Koenig’s determination of their character, the present writer suggested an experiment that would afford absolute proof that the material was really diamond. This was to charge a new skaif, or diamond-polishing wheel, with the supposed diamond dust obtained from the meteorite; should the material polish a diamond there could be no doubt as to its character. On September 11, 1893, this experiment was tried at the Mining Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition. After the skaif had been charged with the residuum separated from the meteorite by Dr. O. W. Huntington, it was given a speed of 2500 revolutions to the minute, and in less than fifteen minutes a small flat surface had been ground down and polished on a cleavage-piece of rough diamond held against the wheel. The experiment was then repeated several times on other diamonds and always successfully. This showed conclusively that the residuum of the meteorite contained many minute diamond fragments.^[183]

A most important group of meteorites were found in 1886 in Brenham township, Kiowa County, Kansas, by some of the farmers of this district in the course of their farming operations.^[184] Entirely unaware of their scientific value, the finders used these objects to weight down haystacks, or for similar uses to which they would put small boulders. In all some twenty of these specimens have been recovered, varying in weight all the way from 466 pounds down to a single ounce. Most of them were taken from an area of about sixty acres, although some were scattered over a wider tract. The largest piece of the group, that on which the farmers had bestowed the fanciful name of the “moon meteorite,” had lain only three inches beneath the surface of the ground and broke a ploughshare when it was first struck; none of the masses appear to have been buried deeper down than from five to six inches. The largest mass measures twenty-four inches across the widest part and fourteen and a half at the thickest part. These Kiowa meteorites are in a sense gem-meteorites, for a number of beautiful and brilliant olivine crystals occur in them; many are in two distinct zones, the inner one being a bright transparent yellow, while the outer one is of a dark brown iron olivine, in reality a mixture of troilite and olivine. The character and composition of the worked iron of meteoric origin found in some of the Turner group of Indian mounds, in the Little Miami Valley, Ohio, indicate that the latter may perhaps be brought into connection with this group of meteorites. For here, as in the Frozen North among the Esquimo, and in a number of other cases, the iron available for primitive man was mainly that of meteorite origin.

In view of the relatively small number of meteorites that have fallen in historical times, and of the small part of the earth’s surface actually occupied by human settlements, we need scarcely be surprised at the statement that there is but one credibly recorded instance of the killing of a human being by a meteorite. This unique disaster is said to have happened at Mhow in India, and fragments of the meteorite which fell then are to be seen in museum collections. The great weight of some meteorites would have rendered them very destructive had they not fallen in the open country; the heaviest single mass actually known to have fallen, came to the ground at Knyahinya, Hungary, in 1866, and weighed 547 pounds; it buried itself 11 feet in the ground. Of course much heavier aerolites and siderites, satisfactorily recognizable as such, have been found, the heaviest being perhaps that at Bacubrit, Mexico, 13 feet in length with a width of 6 feet and a thickness of 5 feet; the weight of this mass is estimated to be some 50 tons. Of meteorites which have fallen in more or less close proximity to human beings, may be noted one at Tourinnes-la-Grosse, which broke the street pavement; another at Angers, which fell into a garden, near to where a lady was standing; and still another at Brunau, which passed through a cottage roof.^[185]

Many other accidents caused by meteorites or what were believed to be meteorites are recorded, the credibility of some of the statements not being very convincing; others, however, appear to be quite worthy of credence. Thus the Chronicle of Ibn Alathir relates that several persons were killed by a rain of stones that fell to the earth in Africa in August, 1020 A.D.^[186] In the middle of the seventeenth century the tower of a prison building in Warsaw is said to have been destroyed by a meteorite.^[187] A hundred years or so before, on May 19, 1552, there was a great fall of stones, not far from Eisleben, one of which killed the favorite steed of Count Schwarzenburg, while another wounded the count’s body-physician, Dr. Mitthobius, in the foot. This was witnessed by Spangenberg, who reports it in his Saxon Chronicle; he carried off some of the stones with him to Eisleben.^[188] An eight-pound stone (probably a siderite) is stated by a certain Olaf Erikson to have fallen on shipboard and killed two persons, at some time about the middle of the seventeenth century; this is rather indefinite information.^[189] The most remarkable happening, however, is reported from Milan from the end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century, when a very small meteorite, weighing not quite an ounce, fell into the cloister of Santa Maria della Pace (now a cotton factory) and killed a Franciscan monk. Such was the velocity of this little stone that it penetrated deep into the monk’s body, whence it was extracted and preserved for a long time in the Collection of Count Settála. The greater part of this collection went later to the Ambrosian Library at Milan, but Chladni sought in vain there for any trace of the death-dealing meteorite.^[190]

Among the Welsh peasants there is a belief that when a meteor falls to the earth it becomes reduced to a mass of jelly. This they name pwdre ser. The most plausible explanation offered for this fancy is that the autumn, the season when the largest number of meteors may be observed, is also the time of the year when the jelly-like masses of the plasmodium of Myxomycetes most frequently appear in the fields. A peasant who, after noting the apparent fall of a meteor, should go in search of it, might easily come across one of these lumps of plasma, and might well be induced to think that he had found all that was left of the meteor after its violent fall to the earth. Of course we have here to do with the apparent, not with the real, fall of a meteorite. In this connection it is interesting to note that the medusa, or jelly-fish, has been called a “fallen star” by sailors.^[191]

This Welsh fancy that meteors or “falling-stars” turned to a jelly when they struck the earth appears to have been quite general in Great Britain, and the jelly-like substance was variously named “star-slough,” “star-shoot,” “star-gelly” or “jelly,” “star-fall’n.” The Welsh pwdre ser literally means “star-rot.” As early as 1641 Sir John Suckling (1609–1642) wrote the following lines which well describe the way in which these gelatinous substances came to be regarded as the remains of a “fallen star”:

Sir Walter Scott also, whose familiarity with superstitions was very great, has not failed to note this one in his “Talisman,” where the hermit says: “Seek a fallen star and thou shalt only light on some foul jelly, which in shooting through the horizon has assumed an appearance of splendour.” Here the star itself is supposed to have had this gelatinous form.

An early writer,^[192] noting this curious belief that “a white and gelatinous substance” was all that remained of a fallen star, declares that he had clearly demonstrated to the Royal Society that the mass was composed of the intestines of frogs, and had been vomited by crows, adding that his opinion had been confirmed by the testimony of other scientific men. Huxley, from a description, conjectured that the substance was nostoc, a gelatinous vegetable mass, but this seems to be somewhat doubtful. In 1744 Robert Boyle states that some of this “star-shoot” was given to a physician of his acquaintance, who “digested it in a well-stopt glass for a long time,” and then sold the liquor for a specific in the removal of wens.^[193]

A jelly-like mass believed by him to be the remains of a “fallen star” was found by Mr. Rufus Graves at Amherst, Mass., on August 14, 1819, and duly reported in the American Journal of Science.^[194] As this gentleman was at one time lecturer on chemistry at Dartmouth College, his testimony is worth heeding, but there can be no doubt that while he accurately describes what he found, he was altogether mistaken in supposing that the meteor fell precisely on the spot where he discovered the gelatinous substance. As we have noted, it has recently been suggested that these “jellies” are plasmodia of forms of Myxomycetes which do not appear to have any connection with the spot whereon they rest, but seem to have fallen from the air.^[195]

Falling stars are explained by the natives of Labrador and of Baffin’s Bay as being souls of the departed bound on an excursion to Hades in order to see what is going on there, while the phenomena of thunder and lightning are caused by a party of old women, who quarrel so violently over the possession of a seal that they bring the house down over their heads and shatter the lamps. These “old women” must, of course, be spirits of the upper air, not human beings.^[196]

In some Australian tribes the sorcerers, or “medicine-men,” taking advantage of the superstitious dread of falling stars common among the aborigines, pretend to have marked the spot where such a star has fallen and to have dug it up and preserved it in their medicine-bag. These supposititious “fallen stars” are sometimes quartz pebbles, and in one instance the curiosity of a European investigator was satisfied by the display of a piece of thick glass, which the sorcerer strictly maintained he had dug out of the ground wherein the star had fallen.^[197]

Arrow-heads encased in silver were looked upon as the solid contents of the lightning flash, and were not only thought to protect the house in which they were kept from being struck by lightning, but their protective power was believed to extend to seven houses in the immediate neighborhood. An interesting example is a neolithic silex arrow-head figured by Bellucci. This has been elegantly set in silver in modern times, and comes from Pesca Costanzo, in the province of Aquila, Italy.

The Italians are convinced that if the arrow-head, or similar object, come in contact with a piece of iron, the “essence of the lightning” departs from it, revealing itself in a spark; hence they wrap it up, carefully, in skin, cloth, or paper so as to guard it from harm. Sometimes these objects are anointed with oil, a survival of the custom of making propitiatory offerings of oil. This usage in the case of sacred stones is very general, and is met with in places as remote from each other as Sweden, India and the Society Islands.^[198]

In an Iroquois myth and legend, He-no, the god of thunder, is an object of great veneration because of the powerful aid he renders to those whom he favors. He is believed to direct the rain which shall fertilize the seed in the earth, and also to give aid to the harvesters when the fruits of the earth have ripened. While traversing the celestial vault, in his journeyings hither and thither above the surface of the globe, he bears with him an enormous basket filled with huge boulders of chert rock. These he casts at any evil spirit he may encounter, and when on occasion a spirit succeeds in avoiding such a boulder, it will fall down to the earth surrounded by fire. We have here another version of the almost universal myth of thunder-stones.^[199]

In treating of the flint arrow-heads of the American Indians, Adair notes that in form and material they closely resembled the “elf-stones” with which European peasants were wont to rub any of their cattle believed to have been “shot” by fairies or elves. A village in which one of these magic objects existed was considered to be particularly favored by fortune, as they not only served to protect the cattle from bewitchment but were equally efficacious in preserving human beings from the spells of witches.^[200]

In East Prussia, when cows are believed to have been bewitched so that their milk is under a spell, resort is had to the powers of a perforated “thunder-stone.” Such stones were ancient stone hammers with a central perforation for a handle. The stone is held beneath the cow at milking-time, and the milk is allowed to pass through the perforation.^[201] By this means the spell is broken and the milk becomes harmless.

Such perforated stones are also used to protect a house from being struck by lightning. When a storm approaches nearer and nearer, the owner of one of these magic stones will thrust his finger through the hole, twirl the stone around three times, and then hurl it against the door of the room. When this has been done, the house is believed to be proof against lightning.^[202]

In Westphalia the stone is laid upon a table alongside of a consecrated candle, the shrewd peasants thus assuring for their houses the protection of the church as well as that of the ancient God of Thunder.^[203]

Another phase of the superstition in regard to the stone axes known in many different parts of the world as thunder-stones, because they are believed to have fallen during a thunder-storm, is given by Dr. Lund in a letter written from Logoa Santa in Brazil. He states that the inhabitants rather look askance at these stones, believing that wherever they are found the lightning is apt to strike, “in order to seek its brother!”^[204]

The stone implements of various forms found in the shell-heaps of Brazil are called by the natives Curiscos or “lightning-stones.” The Guaranis name them “stars fallen from heaven”; the Cajuas, “stones hurled by the thunder”; and the Coarados, “axe-stones.” A high price is paid for these by the gold-seekers in Brazil, who believe that, by attraction, they show the presence of gold beneath the surface, just as the divining-rod is supposed to be affected by the presence of water or by hidden treasures.^[205]

The peasants of Slavonic descent in Moravia have great faith in the virtues of the “thunder-stone.” During Passion Week the stone has the power to reveal the location of hidden treasures, and it is also believed that warts on man and horse will disappear if they be rubbed with such a stone before sunset. However, not only healing virtues are attributed, for if the stone be hurled at anyone and strikes him, it inflicts a mortal wound.^[206]

A poetic and appropriate name has been applied to the earliest of the chipped stone artefacts of primitive man by archæologists. They are called “Dawn Stones” (eoliths), and the name characterizes these interesting relics, the first steps in the development of sculptural art, as products of the dawn of human civilization.

A curious survival of the adoration of stones is reported by the Earl of Roden in his “Progress of the Reformation in Ireland.”^[207] A correspondent informed Lord Roden that in Inniskea, an island off the coast of Mayo, there was, in 1851, a stone idol called in the Irish tongue Neevougi. This was said to have been preserved and worshipped from time immemorial. The stone is described as having been wrapped in so many folds of homespun flannel that it looked like a mass of that material. This is explained by the custom of dedicating a dress of this flannel to the stone whenever its aid was sought, the garment being sewed on by an old woman who officiated as the priestess of the stone. Prayers were offered to this strange idol for the cure of diseases, as it was supposed to be endowed with extraordinary powers. A stranger petition sometimes made was that a storm might arise and wreck a ship upon the coast so that the thrifty islanders might profit by its misfortune; on the other hand, with charming inconsistency, when they wished to go a-fishing or pay a visit to the mainland, the trusty stone was expected to assure them fair weather and a calm sea.

In Tavernier’s time (about 1650) many poor families living in the woods and on the hillsides in India, far from any village where there was a temple, would take a stone, probably one of a peculiar shape, and would roughly paint on it a nose and eyes in red or green color. This being done, the whole family would gather about this stone and reverently adore it as their idol.^[208]

In certain districts in Norway, up to the end of the eighteenth century, superstitious peasants used to preserve round stones, and set them up in a conspicuous place in their houses. At Yule-tide these stones were sprinkled with fresh ale. Some of them were worshipped as divinities, and every Thursday, or oftener, they were smeared with butter, or some similar substance, before the fire. This ointment was allowed to dry on the stone, which was then returned to its place of honor. These ceremonies were supposed to insure the health and happiness of the household.^[209]

The fact that special ceremonies were performed in connection with these stones on Thursday, as well as the name “Thor-stones” applied to many of them, indicates that in early times they were associated with the worship of the god Thor. The so-called thunderbolts—usually flint axe-heads—are believed to have been hurled at the trolls or elves by the thunder, so that these evil-disposed spirits might be subdued and prevented from fulfilling an old saying, according to which they would desolate the earth. Originally it was Thor himself who was believed to hurl the thunderbolt.

These stones were supposed to be endowed with wonder-working powers. When a woman was in labor, ale was allowed to drip over a stone of this kind, and was then given to the woman to drink. All through the Scandinavian countries the peasants believed that if such a stone were hung up in a house or on cattle, the trolls and other malevolent spirits would be driven away, and all spells and witchcraft would be rendered harmless.^[210]

In Sir William Brereton’s account of his travels (1634–1635)^[211] we read that he saw in the School of Anatomy at Leyden a stone called “Fulminis Sagitta, or the dart of the thunderbolt, about the size of your little finger.” This was either a belemnite^[212] or a stone arrow-head of somewhat similar form. It bore a Latin inscription to the following effect: “Many believe that nursing children can be cured of rupture if this stone be attached to their thighs, or if they do not suffer from this complaint, they will be preserved from it.”

On the ridge-beam of an Irish cottage at Portrush was found a neolithic celt of the kind believed by the peasantry to be “thunderbolts.” This celt had been placed on the roof of the cottage to protect it from being struck by lightning, a notion thoroughly in accord with the theory of sympathetic magic. In Surrey, England, a like belief is held as to the fossil belemnites, and nodules of iron pyrites such as have been found in Cretaceous formations near Cragdon are also thought to have fallen from the sky during a thunder-storm, and to possess peculiar powers in reference to the lightning.^[213]

In Ireland the prehistoric stone arrow-head is believed to have been shot at man or beast by the fairies. Should an old woman be so lucky as to find one she will become highly honored in her village, and it is used as a cure for diseases produced by the wiles of evil spirits. To effect a cure, the saigead (“arrow”) must be placed in water, which is then given to the sick person to drink.^[214] Cows which have been wounded by the “fairy-darts” are also made to drink of this water. The Irish peasants wore the stone arrow-heads, set in silver, as amulets for protection against injury from like weapons at the hands of the fairies. Similar superstitions exist in the North of England.^[215] Nilsson believes that the “elf-shots” (the arrow-points or axe-points) of the Irish peasantry are identical with the “Lap-shots” of the Swedish peasantry. These stones were thought to have belonged to the Laplanders, the “black elves” of the Edda, and were therefore used as a protection against the witcheries of these elves. The idea that the substance or thing that has caused an injury can effect a cure of this injury, appears in the Edda.^[216]

The shepherds in the French Alps value the “thunder-stones” (peyros de tron) very highly. They are handed down from father to son as precious heirlooms, and when the flocks are driven to the pasturage, one of these wonder-working stones is embedded in a tuft of wool on the back of the bell-wether; this is supposed to serve as a protection for the whole flock.^[217] In Spain the peasants call these stones piedros del rayo, or “lightning-stones.”^[218]

The names bestowed on such prehistoric stone implements by the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago, of Java and Sumatra, all indicate that they are believed to have fallen from the sky. In Malacca they are called batu gontur, “lightning-stones,” and in Sumatra we have the name anakpitas, “child of the lightning.” In the island of Nias, near Sumatra, they are worn as amulets on the head or attached to the sword. The Watubela islanders denominate them “teeth of the thunder,” a name which suggests the appellation glossopetra (“stone-tongue”), and like this is evidently derived from the form of certain of these prehistoric celts.^[219]

The Burmans have given the highly poetic name of “rainbow-disease” to the disorder known to us as appendicitis, and they use the axe-heads and other pointed or sharpened arrow-heads of the Stone Age for the cure of this malady, stroking the region affected with one of these implements. The natives share in the delusion almost universal among primitive peoples, that these stone implements have fallen from the sky during thunder-storms, and that they partake of the nature of thunderbolts; hence they are supposed to destroy the rainbow-disease, as the approach of heavy storm clouds, charged with lightning, darken the sun and put an end to the beautiful natural phenomenon.

In the island of Mindanao, one of the Philippine group, the heathen Manobos called the thunder the “speech of the lightning,” and regarded the latter as a kind of wild animal, so that whenever the lightning struck the earth or a tree they believed that the animal had buried its teeth in the spot. They therefore looked upon any stone implement found there as one of these teeth.^[220]

The ancient stone hammers found in Japan are called rai fu seki, “thunderbolts,” or tengu no masakari, “battle-axes of Tengu,” the warder of the heavens. Other stone implements bear the name “fox-axes,” or “fox-planes.” These peculiar designations are employed because the fox is a symbol of the devil, and the stone axes are regarded as weapons of the devil. Of course this in no wise prevents their use as amulets or medicinally; indeed, their powder is thought to be an especially effective remedy for boils and ulcers. Many such stones may be seen in the temples, where they are carefully preserved and shown to the pilgrims who visit the different shrines.^[221]

Even at the present day, the superstitious belief in the magic properties of the prehistoric stone implements still survives among some of the Scandinavian peasants. They believe that these offer protection against lightning, and they are very unwilling to part with them. In some regions the stone axes or arrow-heads are supposed to afford protection against lightning, and they are occasionally used to relieve the pangs of childbirth. In the latter case they are placed in the bed of the suffering woman. Another curious use to which they are put is as a cure for an eruptive disease of children. Here the flint is struck sharply with a piece of steel, so that the sparks fall upon the child’s head.^[222] This gives us an added proof of the association of these stone axes, etc., with fire and with the lightning flash.

The Burmese celts or stone hatchets are frequently of jade and differ from those usually met with in Europe and India, in that they are provided with a chisel-edge instead of a double-sloped cutting edge. An interesting account of the superstitions connected with these implements is given by Mr. Theobald,^[223] from whom we quote the following passage. It will be noted that the Burmese ideas are in almost exact accord with those current in Europe.

The Burmese call these implements mo-jio, thunder-chain or thunderbolt, and believe that they descend with the lightning flash, and, after penetrating the earth, work their way back by degrees to the surface, where they are found scattered about the fields among the lower hills, usually after rain, or on removing the crops. The true mo-jio is supposed to possess many occult virtues, and it is not common to find one which does not show signs of having been chipped or scraped for medicinal purposes.

One of the chief virtues of the mo-jio is to render the person of the wearer invulnerable; and many an unlucky mo-jio has succumbed to the popular test, which is to wrap it in a cloth and fire a bullet at it at short range. If the man misses the cloth, the authenticity and power of the charm is at once established; if the stone is fractured it is held not to be a real mo-jio.

Fire will not consume a house which contains one, though I never heard of this ordeal being attempted. Last but not least is the known fact that the owner of a real mo-jio can cut a rainbow in half with it.

Certain recent happenings have suggested that the name “aviator-stone” would be a peculiarly appropriate designation for meteorites, and indeed this new name would only serve to emphasize the legendary belief, that he who bore with him a meteorite when he was in deadly peril would escape all injury. By a strange coincidence those who are willing to take great risks and chances are generally more or less superstitious regarding small things, and a daring aviator recently remarked that on one occasion, when his machine had suddenly fallen fifty feet, he felt for his tie and said to himself: “This accident has happened because I forgot to put on my opal pin, but I have been saved from injury because I carried a meteorite.” This aviator, having mentioned the incident to Harmon, a few minutes before the latter made his successful attempt to win the Doubleday-Page aviation prize, Harmon immediately took the meteorite which had been shown to him, saying: “Let me have it.” He accomplished his task, and although both the competing machines were injured, the aviators themselves were saved.

A meteorite, of course, cannot be claimed to be a preventive of danger on all occasions, but several who have always carried them have seemed to escape all sorts of harm. Some years ago a meteorite was given to Edward Heron Allen, the famous writer on palmistry and the violin, and this gifted man always wore it about him. One morning he awakened to find that the entire roof above him had fallen in, except just that portion over his bed. He told the story to one of the best known ladies in Boston; one who is known for her public spirit, her love of art and her faultless manner of entertaining. This lady successfully urged Allen to give her the meteorite. A few days later, while out driving, a great truck with two runaway horses attached to it struck her carriage. Instinctively she raised her muff to protect her face; the muff was almost cut in two, but the lady was not hurt. A few days later, while she was walking under some scaffolding, it fell, and the open part where the hoists went up proved to be just where she stood. Although surrounded by ruin, she remained unharmed.