that, if they are
genuine thunderbolts, a thread tied round them when placed on hot coals
will not burn but will become moist. In Germany, Spain, Italy, the same
beliefs prevail. In Japan the stones are accounted of medicinal value,
while in Burma and Assam they are infallible specifics for ophthalmia.
In Africa they are the weapons of the Thunder-God. In India and among
the Greeks the hatchet appears to have had a sacred importance, derived,
doubtless, from the universal superstitious awe with which these weapons
of prehistoric man were regarded.

See Sir J. Evans's _Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain_; Lord
Avebury's _Prehistoric Times_ (1865-1900) and _Origin of Civilization_
(1870); E.B. Tylor's _Anthropology, and Primitive Culture_, &c. For
the history of polished stone axes up to the 17th century see Dr
Marrel Bandouin and Lionel Bonnemere in the _Bulletin de la Societe
d'Anthropologie de Paris_, April-May 1905.

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