80
Snakestones and Stone Thunderbolts.
above that both the snakestone and the stone thunderbolt are embedded deeply in the folklore strata of many parts of Britain and the Continent, and hence we may conclude that they both once formed part of the religion of these islands, but have been so overlaid by Christianity that they now represent not merely beliefs about fossils, but also what may perhaps be called some "fossil beliefs" of Britain as well. Above all we have found a possible link between the two classes of belief in the fact that both celts and ammonites are in India connected with the worship of Vishnu.[1]
- ↑ I have to express my very great indebtedness, in particular to the geological friends who have helped me with this paper, among whom I may specially mention Dr. F. L. Kitchin, Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, Mr. H. B. Woodward, Mr. H. Woods, and Professor T. M Kenny Hughes, as well as to Mr. W. Crooke, Professor Giles, Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, Mr. E. Lovett, Mr. A. B. Cook, and last, but not least, my father Professor Skeat, to whose kind help is due most of what is valuable in the quotations from the earlier English records.
