Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-03-27
THE MAN IN THE MOON.
Legendary Lore Concerning this Inter
esting Person and His Companions.


Among the superstitions yet lingering
in the minds of mankind, none, per-
haps, is more universal than that of the
man in the moon. I'm England, he is
chiefly immortalized by the old nursery
rhyme, but no further details are given
of his proceedings. German legends
are, however, more communicative,
and sundry traditions relate his history,
varying in different parts of the coun-
try.
A Swabian mother at Derendingen
tells her child that a man was once
working in his vineyard on Sunday,
and after having pruned all his vines,
he made a bundle Of the shoots he had
Just cut of, laid it in his basket and
went home. According to one version
the vines were stolen from neighbours
vineyard. When taxed either with the
Sabbath-breaking or with the theft, the
culprit stoutly protested his innocence,
and finally exclaimed, "if have COM
mitted such crime, may l 60 to the
moon" After his death, this fate duly
befell him, and there he remains to
this day, condemned to eat molten lead
as n punishment. The Black Forest
peasantry say that the dark spots visi-
BILE in the moon are caused by man
being spell-bound there. He stole
bundle Of wood on Sunday, because he
thought on that day he should be I'M
molested by the foresters. But he had
not gone far with it when he met
stranger, who was none other than the
Almighty himself. After reproving the
the thief for not keeping the Sabbath
day holy, God said he must be pun
ished; but he might choose whether he
would DO banished to the sun or moon.
The m an chose the latter, declaring he
would rather freeze in the moon than
burn in the sun, and thus the Besen-
mamie" or Broom-man came into
the moon with the faggot on his back.
Some say that the Almighty set light to
the fagot, and it burns perpetually, in
order that the bearer may not be frozen
to death. At Waltenburg, in the Grisons,
the tale! is different. A poor woman
besought a "Senner" to give her little
milk, which he refused to do. There
upon she wished that he might go to
the coolest place in existence, which is
the moon, and he is there visible with
the milk-pail.
The man in the moon frequently
figures in North German legends.
Kuhn relates tradition in the Havel
country One Christmas eve peasant
felt great desire to eat cabbage, and
having none himself, he slipped into
his neighbours garden to cut some.
Just as he had filled his basket, the
Christ child rode past on his white
horse and said: Because thou hast
stolen on the holy night, thou shalt inn
mediately sit in the moon with thy bas-
ket Of cabbage No sooner said than
done, and the criminal is still undergo
ing the penalty. AT Paderborn, in
Westphalia, the crime committed was
not theft, but hindering people from at
tending church on Easter day by placing
thorn bush in the field gate through
which they had to pass.
In the neighborhood of Wittengen,
the man is said to be banished to the
moon because he tied up his brooms on
Maunday Thursday; and at Deilinhofen,
of having mown his meadows on
Sunday.
Different versions are related in Linz
burg, where the man in the moon is be-
lieved to have stolen wool on Easter
morning; while ut Hemer, in West
phalia, people say ne was engaged in
fencing his field on Good Friday, and
had Just poised bunch of thorns on
his fork, when he was ut once trans
ported to the moon. Some of the
Hemcr peasants declare that the moon
is not only inhabited by y man with his
thorn-bush and pitchfork. but likewise
10y n woman churning. They are hus-
band and wife, and both broke the Sab
bath, the man by fencing his field and
the woman by churning her butter
during the hours of divine service
An ancient Northern fable states that
Mani the Moon) kidnapped two chill
dren named Bill and Hulk from the
earth, while they were employed in
drawing water from the we'll Byrgir,
bearing on their shoulders the pail Ssegr
on the yoke Stimuli. These children
follow Mani and are plainly visible from
the earth.
The myth of the child-stealing Moon
Man. which existed throughout the
North and also III Germany, evidently
received Il Christian coloring i'll later
times. The idea of the theft was re-
tanned, but the chief stress is laid on
the observance of the Christian festival.
The culprit does not suffer for stealing
the wood but mainly for committing
the sin en- the Lords day. This inter
probation may have originated in the
occoppt in tho hook of Numbers of