Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary, cryptocrystalline form of quartz, the variety of chert found in chalk and marly limestone, where it occurs mainly as nodules and masses. It can be sandy brown, grey from medium to dark, black, reddish brown or an off-white grey. For most of human history it was the stone for tools and for striking fire. Cunningham, calling flint a term loosely used for opaque quartz, gives it to Mars and fire as a projective stone. He notes that it was among the first things early peoples traded, and that ancient flint blades found across Europe, their origin long forgotten, were called thunderstones and elf-shot and kept as protective amulets. The Irish set flint knives in silver against mischievous fairies, Scandinavians sometimes honoured them as household gods with offerings of beer and melted butter, and Cherokee healers invoked flint before treating the sick. In his magic, ancient flint tools are protective amulets, most potent over a door, and a flint knife or replica is held or laid on the altar in protective rites. He also records flint used in Brazil to divine for gold, water and gemstones, and an American spell that sends a headache away in the sparks struck from it.