Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A stone which under certain conditions (for example, when placed in water) is imagined to be able to cause rain.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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When the Wakondyo, a tribe of Central Africa, desire rain, they send to the Wawamba, who dwell at the foot of snowy mountains, and are the happy possessors of a "rain-stone."
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When the Wakondyo, a tribe of Central Africa, desire rain, they send to the Wawamba, who dwell at the foot of snowy mountains, and are the happy possessors of a rain-stone.
Chapter 5. The Magical Control of the Weather. § 2. The Magical Control of Rain 1922
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In classical times the ceremony consisted in a procession headed by the pontifices, which bore the sacred rain-stone from its resting-place by the Porta Capena to the Capitol, where offerings were made to the sky-deity, Iuppiter, but [1] from the analogy of other primitive cults and the sacred title of the stone (_lapis manalis_), it is practically certain that the original ritual was the purely imitative process of pouring water over the stone.
The Religion of Ancient Rome Cyril Bailey 1914
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