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.