Wichita eagle., 1890-02-20
OLD TIME EcLiPSEs.
AlarH They Caused Among People Igno-
rant of Their Causes.

Alaym They Caused Among People Igno-
rant of Their Causes.
An eclipse of the sun was formerly consid-
cred ominous. The Romans supposed it was
owing to the influence of magical charms,
to counteract which they had recourse to
brazen instruments of all kinds. Indeed,
eclipses, which to us are well known phe-
nomena, witnessing the exactness of natural
laws, were, in the earlier stages OF civiliza-
ton, regarded as the very embodiment of
miraculous disaster. 1t was popular belief
that the moon was affected by the influence
of witchcraft, and that witches had sufi-
cient power to put down the moon by their
enchantment. During an eclipse at the close
of the sixteenth century, visible in Scotland,
men and women thought that the day 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 protection, believing that it portended
some awful calamity.
In France, in 1864, at an eclipse Of the sun,
some people bought drugs which they sup
posed would counteract the effects of the
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
Peruvians, Greeks and ESquimaux TO thrash
ours most soundly during eclipses. The
Creeks explain this by saying that the big
dog was swallowing 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
supposed to be contained in the dog are still
believed in by some of our northern Indian
tribes, who think no offering so likely to ap-
pease the angry water god who raises the
tempest as dog. Therefore in showery
weather they hasten TO tie the feet of one and
throw him overheard.
The course of progressive science went far
beyond this with the Aztecs, who, as part of
their remarkable astronomical knowledge,
seem to have had an idea Of the cause Of
eclipses, but who kept up relic of the old
belief by continuing TO speak in mythologica!
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 a solar eclipse Is
the moon catching the sun. Among the Ma
lays the moon is considered to be a woman,
as is also the sun: the stars are the moons
children, and the sun in old times had as
many as the moon. Fearing, however, that
mankind could not bear SO much brightness
and heat, they agreed each to devour her
children; but the moon, instead of eating up
the stars hid them from the SUMS 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, filed 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 repre-
sented 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.-New York Times.