Elf-bolts

Elf-bolts, also called Elfin-arrows, Elf-darts, Elf-shot, and Elf-stones, names popularly given in the British Islands to the arrow-heads of flint which were in use among the early inhabitants of Britain and of Europe generally (see FLINT IMPLEMENTS). It was believed that elves or invisible beings shot these barbs of flint at cattle, and occasionally even at men. Thus, Robert Gordon of Straloch, an accomplished country gentleman of the north of Scotland, writing in 1654, tells how one of his friends, travelling on horseback, found an elf-bolt in the top of his boot, and how a gentlewoman of his acquaintance, when out riding, discovered one in the breast of her habit. Cattle dying suddenly in the fields were believed to have been struck by elf-arrows—a belief which yet lingers in Ireland. The elf-bolt was occasionally set in silver, so as to be worn on the person as a talisman, or had a hole drilled through it, so that it might be dipped in water, which, being thus endowed with healing virtue, was used sometimes as a wash, more commonly as a draught. As a talisman, the elf-bolt was believed to be most efficacious as a preservative from poison and witchcraft.