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The following passage written in the fourteenth, or perhaps in the thirteenth century, shows considerable accuracy of observation:
There are some who fancy that the thunder is a stone, for the reason that a stone often falls when it thunders in stormy weather. This is not true, for if the thunder were a stone, it would wound the people and animals it strikes, just as any other falling stone does. However, this is not the case, for we see that the people who have been struck by thunder (sic) show no wounds, but they are black from the stroke, and this is because the hot vapor burns the blood in their hearts. Therefore, they perish without wounds.
The fall of a siderite twenty miles east of Lahore in India, on April 17, 1621, is reported in contemporary records. From this iron, which weighed about 3 1/4 pounds, the Mogul Emperor Jehangir ordered two sabres to be made, as well as a knife and a dagger, and commanded that the fact should be properly registered. Here, as in other similar cases, the weapons were believed to possess a quasi-magic power because of the celestial origin of the material employed. |
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Precious Stones Guide Vol 8
>> About Meteorites in a Fourteenth Century Story
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