St. Landry democrat., 1890-03-08
Old Time Eclipses.

| ALARM THEY CAUSED AMONG PEOPLE
IGNORANT OF THEIR CAUSES.
An eclipse of the sun was formerly con-
sidered ominous. The Romans supposed
it was owing to the influence of magical
charms, to countera t which they had
recourse to brazen instruments of all
kinds. Indeed, eclipses which to us are
we'll known phenomena, witnessing the
exactness of natural laws, were, IN the
earlier stages of civilization, regarded as
the very embodiment of miraculous disas-
ter. 1t was a popular belief that the
moon was affected by the influences of
| witchcraft, and that the witches had suffi-
| cient power to put down the moon by
their enchantmept. During an eclipse at
the close of the sixteenth century, visible
in Scotland, men and women thought the
doy of Judgment had come. Many
| women swooned, much crying was heard
in the streets, and in fear some ran to the
churches to pray. The alarm early in the
century was very great, indoor work was
suspended for the time, and prayers were
in numerous instances offered for protec-
ton, believing that it poTtended some
awful calamity.
In France, in 1924, at an eclipse of the
sun, some people bought drugs which they
supposed would counterfeit the effects of
the eclipse. Others hid in caves and we'll
closed chambers, and many believed that
the last day had come and that the eclipse
would shake the foundations of nature.
The custom prevailed among tribes so
widely apart as the Peruvians, Creeks, and
ESQuimauX to thrash ours most sounGly
during the eclipses. The creeks explain
this by saying that the big dog was swal-
lowing the sun, and that by whipping the
little ones they could make him desist.
Just what the big dog was they were not
prepared to say. The peculiar powers sup
posed to be contained in the dog are still
believed in by some of our northern
Indian tribes, who think no offering SO
likely to appease the angry water god
who raises the tempest as dog. There
fore in showery weather they hasten to
tie the feat of one and throw him verboard.
The course of progressive science went
fsr beyond this with the Aztecs, who, as
a part of their remarkable astronom: cal
knowledge, seem to have had an idea of
the cause of eciipses, but who kept up
relic of the old belief by continuing to
speak in NEUROLOGICAL phrase of the sun
and moon being eaten. So in Africa there
may be found both the rudest theory of
an eclipse monster, and the more advanced
conception that solar eclipse is the
moon catching the sun. Among the
Malays the moon is considered to be
woman, ss is also the sun the stars are
the moons children, aud the sun in old
times had as many as tbs moon; but the
moon, instead of eating up the stars, hid
them from the suns sight. The latter,
believing them all devoured, ate up her
own, whereupon the moon brought her
family from the hiding place. When the
sun saw them, filled with rage, she chased
the moon to kill her. The chase has
lasted ever since, and sometimes the sun
even comes near enough to bite the moon,
and that is represented by the eclipse
The sun, as men may still see, devours
her stars at dawn, and the moon hides
hers all day while the sun is near, and
only brings them out at night, when her
pursuer is far away.-Neao York Times.