The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-02-15
The Man in the Moon.

ing in the minds of mankind, none,
perhaps, is more universal than that Of
the man in the moon. In England he
is chiefly immOrtaiized by the old nur-
sery rhyme, but no further details are
given of his proceedings. German le-
gends are, however, more cOmmunica-
tive, aud sundry traditions relate his his
tory, varying in different parts of the
country.
/ A Swabian mother at Derendingen
tells her child that a man was ouce
working in his vineyard on Sunday,
and after having pruned all his vines,
he made bundle Of the shoots he had
cut of, laid it in his basket and went
home. According to one version the
vines were stolen from a neighbours
vineyard. When taxed either with
Sabbath breaking, or with the theft, the
eulprit stOutly protested bis innocence
and finally exclaimed, "If / have COM
mitted such a crime, may go to the
moOnW After his death, this fate befel
him, and there he remains to this day,
condemned to eat molten lead as a pun
ishment. The Black Forest peasantry
say that the dark spots visible in the
moon are caused by a man being spell
bound there. He stole bundle of wood
on Sunday, because he thought on that
day he would be unmOlested by the for
esters. But he had not gone far with it
when he met a stranger, who was none
other than the Almighty himself AZ
ter reproving the thief for not keeping
the Sabbath day holy, God said he must
be punished but he might choose
whether he would be banished to the
sun OF to the moon. The man chose the
latter, declaring be would rather freeze
in the moon than burn in the sun, and
fhua tho 81 ftRrnnua,-
man" came into the moon with his fagot
on his back.
Different versions are related in Lin
burg, where the man in the moon is be-
lieved to have stolen wood on Easter
morning; while at Hemer, in Westpha-
liza, people say he was engaged in fene-
ing his field on Good Friday, and had
Just poised a bunch of thOrns on his
fork, when he was at once transported
to the moon. Some Of the Hemer peas
ants declare that the moon is not only
Inhabited by man with his thOrn-bush
and pitch-fork, but likewise by wOm-
an ohurning. They are husband aud
wife, aud both broke the Sabbath, the
man fencing his field, and the woman
by ehurning her butter, during the
hours of divine worship.
All nations seem to have a common
desire to account for the spots IN the
moon.
According to the Hindoos, Chandras,
the god of the moon, bears hare in his
arms.
! The MongOlians also believe the spots
represent a hare. One of their deities
transformed himself into hare in order
: to feed starving way yfarer, and in honor
) Of this act of virtue, the figure of hare
] was thencefOrth visible i'm the moon.
p The natives Of Ceylon have a some
: what similar legend. When Buddha
sojOurued as a hermit on earth, he one
4 day lost his way in a forest, and after
/ long wanderings, he met a hare, who
: thus addressed him: al can help thee.
Do thou take the right hand path, and
l will guide thee out of the Wilderness y
81 thank thee" returned Buddha,
e "but | am poor and starving, and am
@ unable to reQuite thy kindness"
! "If thou art hungry" replied the hare,
"ligbt fire, kill and eat me-"
r Buddha lighted a fire as desired, and
D the hare Immediately leaped in; but
, Buddha now displaced his supernatural
powers, and tearing the hare from the
flames, he placed IL in the moon, where
5 he still resides. This story is related by
= 4 French traveller in CeylOn, and he adds
I that his telescope was often borrowed by
the natives, in order that they might
inspect the hare in the moon.
T MullenhOff says that the people of
D Rautum, in the Schleswig Island of
p Syit, declare that the man in the moon
is a giant, who bends down at full tide
' to scoop up the water and pour it on the
= earth. At low tide he stands upright,
b resting from his labOrs, so that the wa
d ter may subside.
We now come to the superstitiOns at
= tached to the power of the moon, aud
q prominent among them is the idea that
q no work may be undertaken in moon
9 shine. The Swabian people consider il
a great sin to spin or knit by moonlight,
Il as though one could not do enough by
o day. That is the reason why the moon
: does not give sufficient light for any
work. Whoever ventures to spin, foI
example, weaves a rope for the neck Ol
Il some relation. There are several storie;
IS illustrating the danger of transgressing
IS this rule.
A poor woman at Breckenheim, in
Swabia, earned her livelihood by spin
u ming, and her diligence was so great thai
rs she spent whole nights at her distatf; In
n order to save the expense of oil, she nevel
o., lighted her lamp when there was full
moon. As she sat thus spinning in th'
; moonshiue, and the church clock wa
r, tolling the hour of midnight, the doc
70 opened and a strange man entered. HI
, had his arms full of distaffs, aud said
&c "If thou dOst not spin all these full thi
ne night, it will be all over with thee
n With these words he vanished, leaving
of the woman in terrible fright. Luckil,
she bethought herself of merely spin
ming the distaffs once over, and in thi
10 way she accomplished her task befOr
n daybreak. The stranger, who was th
r. evil one himself, reappeared at the ap
pointed time aud silently took the spin
ei dies away with him. But never agai
en- did the woman spin by moonlight.
n SchOnwerth says that the peasants G
or the Upper Palatinate never leave thei
=. carts or agricultural implements out Q
doors when the moon is shining, as il
~ beams would break them. For the sam
10 reason, linen must not be left hangin
nm ia the moOnshine, and superstition
folks always warn their friends agains
sleeping in the moonlight, and bathin
.lk or drinking from any fountain or we
hit on which the rays of the moon fall.
"A is also unsafe to dance by moonlight, b.
m cause the surface of the earth is then
al thin as a cObweb, and the spirits unde
sal ground are lured upward by the musi
The moon is likewise said to blacken q
Is complexion, TO promote the decay Of fl:
and meat, aud even to blunt the edge
raZors.
~ ~ Friendship is the cordial of life, Il
a. lenitive of our sOrrows, and the null
/, - plier Of our joys; it is the source of al
nation and of repOse