Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1873 — NOTIONS ABOUT THE MOON. [ARTICLE]

NOTIONS ABOUT THE MOON.

Jlen’have liad strange fancies about earth’s beautiful satellite. They have worshiped it as a goddess, sung of it as the birthplace of dreams, honored itas the •abiding-place of -beneficent spirits empowered to visit earth to aid good men and punish evil-doers.. Some have held the moon to be the first home of humanity, the Paradise lost by Eve’s trangression; others have believed it to be the place to which the souls of men ascend after death. Byron wrote — ~~~'~""Sweet Ilian's crest Floats tbroughthe azure air, an island of the bleat; and a modern poetess has avowed her faith that the wretched find rest in Luna’s serene regions. Many wise men of old believed the moon to be a world full ot life, Pythagoras boldly asserting it had its seas and rivers, its mountains, plains, and woods, its plants far lovelier than the flowers of earth, its animals fifteen times the size of those familiar to mundane eyes, ruled over by men of larger growth and higheFmental faculties than those of earthly nroutrh —7 —— Leaving philosophers to speculate as to whether the moon was or was not' the home of creatures more or less akin to humankind, unphilosophical folk agreed that the moon had one inhabitant at least, one of their own race, whose form was palpable to all who had eyes to see. How he attained his elevated position was iu this wise. While the children of Israel sojourned in the wilderness, a man was detected gathering sticks upon tho< Sabbath-day, whereupon he was taken without the camp and stoned until he died. Not satisfied with this exemplary punishment of the offender by his fellowwanderers, the Vox Populi condemned the unhappy Sabbath-breaker to a perpetual purgatory in the moon, wherein he may be seen, bearing his bundle of sticks upon his back, evfir climbing and' climbing without gaining a step; accompanied by a dog, faithful in worse than death, to a master, whom ,an old English song-writer pictures shuddering in constant fear of a fall, and shivering with cold as the frosty air bites his back through his thorn-rent clothes. Shakspeare’s Ste'phano found Caliban rcadytendugh to believe he was the man in the moon, dropped from the skies to become king of the enchanted island: “I linva seen thee in her, and I do adore thee ; my mistress showed me thee, and fliy dog, and thy bush.” In Germany, the story runs that,many ages ago, an old man went into the woods to cut sticks upon a Sunday morning. Having collected as many as he could carry, he slung the bundle upon a stick, shouldered it, and trudged homewards. He had not got far upon his way ere he was stopped by a handsome gentleman dressed in his Sunday best, who inquired if he was aware it was Sunday on earth, when every one was bound to rest from labor. “ Sunday on earth or Monday in hetlven, it is all'the same to me!” was the irreverent reply. “So be it,” said his questioner; “bear, then, your fagot forever; and since you do not value Sunday on earth, you shall have an everlasting Noonday in heaven—standing for eternity in the moon as a warning to Sabbath-breakersV’ As he pronounced sentence, the stfanger vanished, and before the wood-gatherer could apologize for his rudeness, he was seized ,by invisible hands, andborne to the moon, pole, fagohjind all.! According to another version, he had the option of burning in the sun or freezing in the moon, and chose the latter as the least of two evils. Traveling northwards, we find the bundle of sticks transformed into a load of green stuff. A North-Frisian, so devoid of honcstThgenrutyTluttdiucould think ot no better way of passing his Christmas eve than in stripping a neighbor’s garden of its cabbages, was deservedly caught by some of the villagers as he was sneaking away with his plunder. Indignant at the theft, they wished the thief in the moon, amtlo the moon he, went instaritefr there hli yet stands with the stolen cabbages on his back, turning-himself round once on the anniversary of his crime and its detection. New Zealanders, too, claim the man in the moon as one of themselves, their story being, that one Ilona, going out at night, to fetch water from a well, stumbled, fell, and ’ sprained his Ankle so badly, that as he lay unable to move, he cried out with pain. ThenJ to his dismay and terror, he beheld the moon descending towards him, evidently bent upon capturing him. He seized hold of a tree, and clung to it tightly, but it gave wary, and fell with him upon the moon, which “carried both away. In Swabia, not content with a man, they must needs put a man and a woman in the moon : the former for strewing (horns and brambles on the road to church, to hinder more Godly folks than himself from attending —Strmhty nrassy thedtttfer for making butter upon the-Sabbath day. The Cingalese transform the man into a hare, and make the animal’s' presence in the orb of night a reward instead of a punishment. Sakyamtinni, in one of the earlier stages of his existence was a hare, living in ;i sort of partnership with an ape anil a fox. - One day, Indra paid the. three friends a visit, in the guise of an old man waptjng a meal. The larder being bare, the fox, the ape, and tire hare started at. once on a foraging expedition ; while his cronies managed to secure something eatable, the liareTcturned as he went, but rather than be reproached with inhospitality, as soon as a cooking fire was kindled, he jumped into it, thus providing the visitor with a dainty dish very literally at his, own expense; ' Charmed with the action, Indra took the hare out of the fire,

carried him back with him to heaven, and set him in the moon. In Scandinavia, oddly enough, tradition took the New Zealander’s view of Luna’s character, and made a kidnapper of her. According to the Norse legend, Mani, the moon, seeing two children named Hjuki and Bil drawing water from a well into a bucket, which they suspended on a pole for easy carriage, seized upon them, and took children, bucket aud pole into tl|e upper regions. After testing the question again and again, modern meteorologists have come to the conclusion that the moon has no sort of influence over the weather, agreeing'with ;he Iron Duke, that it is nonsense to place any faith in her as a weather predictor. Time was when she was thought absolute mistress of the seasons. Pliny has the following lunar weather wisdom: Fine weather, Wind, or rain, may be looked for according as the moon rises with a pure white, red, or swarthy light. If at full moon, half the disc is clear, fine weather is betokened; if red, wind; if black, rain. If at the rising of the new moon the upper horn is obscured, there will be a prevalence of wet when she is on the wane; if the lower horn is obscured, there will be rain before she attains her full; if both horns appear obtuse, a frightful tempest is near; if they are sharp and erect, high winds may be expected. Darwin declares it is a sure sign of coming'rain when the moon’s head is hidden in lialoes. A correspond ent of Notes and Queries says a large circle round the moon, with a north or northeast wind, predicates stormy weather; if the wind conies from any other quarter, there will be rain, bnt-less ofclt. If, however, the moon rises after sunset, the appearance of a ring round her is not so significant as the Dutch rhyme put it: A ring round Hie moon May puss away soon; But a ring round the sun Gives water in the tun. An old Spanish proverb says the circle of the moon never filled a pond, but the circle of the sunwets a shepherd; while an English rhyme pronounces— If round the moon a-circle’s seen Of white, and all the sky's serene, The following day, you may divine, Will surely prove exceeding line. And— Whene'er, iu autumn or in spring, A mist the moon doth with it bring, At noon the sun will bright appear, The evening be serene and clear. The turning up of the liQins-of the new moon is another sign of fair weather: “There’aJio likelihood of .a.drop naw, jiiT the moon lies like a boat there,” says somebody in “Adam Bede.” Southey- notices this notion in one of his letters: “Poor Littledale has this day explained the cause 8f the rains which have prevailed for the last five weeks, by a theory which will probably be as new to you as it is to me; ‘I have observed,’ he says, ‘that when the moon is turned upwarcls, we have fine weather after it, but when it is turned down, then we have a wet season; and the reason I think is, that when it is turned down, it holds no water, like a basin, you know, and down it comes!’” It is a very common belief that the weather depends upon the moon changing before or after midnight; a belief absurd on the face of it, since, as has been well observed, the moon may change, before twelve at Westminster, and after twelve at St. Paul's. Dr. Adam Glarke was oblivious of this fact when he put forth “A Weather Prognosticator, through all the lunations of each year forever; showing the observer what kind of weather will most probably follow the entrance of the moon into any one of her quarters, and that so near the truth, as to seldom or never bp found to fail.” Our readers can easily decide as to the, worth of the reverend doctor’s weather-guide; they have only to note the time of the moim's entrance upon a new quarter, and compare the actual result with that anticipated by the “Prognosticator.” It would be useless to quote his formulated observations —for, dike all other prophecies concerning the lunar phenomena, there is a total neglect of the met, that weather is local, and not universal. In other words, the change in the moon that is supposed to have given good weather in the south of England, has probably been attended with exceedingly bad weather in Scotland. There is a time for all things; the difficulty lies in hitting on the right time. No such difficulty "disturbed the minds of the farmers of bygone days, who took my lady moon as their guide. They had only to ask themselves was she waxing or waning, and they knew what, to do, and what to leave undone. An increasing moon was favorable to increase.; a waning moon just the reverse. So, under the first, grain was cut, grafts inserted, eggs put under the hen, sheep sheared, and manure spread upon the land. Seeds were sown under a waning moon, in order that the young plants might, have the advantage of growing with tiie moon. Sbw_peason and beans in the wane of the moon, Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon; That they with the planet may rest and arise. And flourish with bearing most plentiful-wise. Whcirthemoon was at tinrfitH was the proper time to make ditches, tread out grape?, and cover tip the roots of trees — seven days later being the fittest period for grubbing up such as were to be removed Timber, not to be touched until the end of the second quarter, aqd then only when the moon was upon the change. The state of the moon,,says Pliny, is all-important when the felling of timber is in question, the very best time for the operation being during the moon’s silence, or. when site is in conjunction with the sun. Some, however, averred she ought to be below the horizon tys well, and that if the conjunction happened to fall upon the day of the -winter solstice, timber then fclledwould be of everlasting duration. Even now, Devonshire apple-growers prefer gathering their fruit at the shrinking' of the moon, believing then it does notmatter though the tipples get bruised in the gathering,which is otherwise fatal to their preservation. Peat-cutters aver that if peat be cut under a waning moon it will remain moist, and not burn clearly. The Brazilian mat-makers of Petropolis account for some of their mats wearing out too quickly, by reason of the caues having been ‘cut at the wrong' time of the moon. It is foolish, according to Suffolk notions, to kill a pig when the moon is waning; for if a pig be converted into pork at that time, . the meflt will invariably excessively when it comes to be cooked. In Burray and South Ronaldsay tJjfiV carry the waxing and waning theory ■still further, holding it unlucky to marry except under a growing moon. A skeptical writer, sneering at one of those who might have boasted, llke.Fulstaff, “We be men of good government, being governed as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress, the moon," says: “When the moon is in Taurus, he can never be persuaded to take physic; lest that animal, which chews the cud, should make him cast up again. If at any time lie has a mind to be admitted into the presence of a prince, he will wait till the moon' is in conjunction

with the sun, for ’tis then the society of an inferior with a superior is salutary and successful.” It was once, and still may be, the ctis-' tom of Highland dames to salute the new moon with solemn courtesy. English country dames were wont to sit astride a style or gate, waiting the new moon’s appearance, to welcome her with, “A fine moon, God bless her!” Bachelors were privileged to claim a kiss and a pair of gloves upon announcing the advent of a new moon to the first maiden they met. If, when first seen, the new moon was upon the right hand, or directly before the person making her acquaintance, good fortune awaited the lucky individual on the ensuing month: just the contrary result following its appearance on the left hand, or at his or her back. -—j ~ f A lunar eclipse has been accounted an omen dire, as it well might be, if the popular notion in ancient times was correct, and the moon was only eclipsed when suffering from the spells of wicked magicians seeking to draw her down to the earth, to aid them in their unholy doings; fortunately, their machinations were of no avail, if honest people could make enough noise tp drown the songs of the enchanters. To sing the moon out of the sky is about as feasible a feat as fishing her out of a pond. Attempting the latter, a haymaker fixed a nickname upon his Wiltshire brethren forever. The story goes that two Wiltshire haymakers, going home from work, espied the reflection of the moon in a pond, and took it for a lump of One took off his boots and stockings, waded in, and tried to lay hold of the glittering prize; it was too deep for his reach, so, seizing hold of his rake, he began to. rake.the jwatcr, and persevered, until a party of Somersetshire mowers came along, and jeered him as a “moonraker.” Anxious to remove the slur of stupidity from his countryman, Mr. Akerman ingeniously accounts for the opprobious nickname in this way: “Piple zay as how they gied th’ neame o’ wood-rakers ta. we Wiltshire vauk, bekase a passel o’ stupid bodies one night tried to rake tlie_ shadow o’ th’ moon out o’ th’ bruk, and tok’to-or a thin cheese. But that’s th’ wrong end o’ th’ story. The chaps as was doin’ o’ this was smugglers, and they was a-vishing up zomc kegs o’ sperits, and only pertended to rake out a cheese. So the exciseman as axed ’em the question had his grin at ’em; but they had a good laugh,at'he, when ’em got whoame the stuff;” By the way; has the saying, “The moon is not made of green cheese,” any connection with the Wiltshire tradition, or with that respecting the Middletonians of Lancashire, who are reproached with taking the moon’s shadow for a Cheshire cheeserand trying to rake it out of a pit?... We-pause fora rejily, and shall look for one in Notes and Queries. —Chambers’s