The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-07
THE MOON HERSELF.
She Has Given Rise 10 a Bushel Of
Queer Ideas.

VI Tie u1OOu, OF lie eAleuI 10 Which, IL
influences terrestrial phenomena, are
not confined to astronomers and other
men of science who tell us that it is a
dead planet devoid of atmosphere and
water, for many unscientitic people
think it consists entirely of the latter,
not to mention others who are IN
clined to the supposition that chalk
or green cheese may enter largely into
its composition.
In fact, according to a Wiltshire
legend, there was once a farmers wife
who, seeing the reflection of the moon
in a river, thought that is was a
cream cheese and endeavored to fish
it out of the water with a rake. Per-
haps it was as well for this worthy
dame that her efforts were not
crowned with success, for it Is recorded
that on one occasion an unfortunate
donkey, having been suspected of
swallowing the moon while drinking
from a river, was tried in due legal
form and, on being found guilty, had
its body ripped open in order thai the
useful planet might be liberated. nee
again to shine upon the world below.
Witches are thought to have more
or less influence over the moon, and
the heather Chinee considers it to be,
like the sun, a favorite article of diet
with certain m~ischievous dragons, who
are supposed to swallow it and thus
produce eclipses. Whether the diges-
tive powers of one of these ~voracious
monsters would be equal to the oeca-
sion, however, has never yet been sat
isfactorily proved. Possibly the sun
or moon taken in a raw state might
produce dyspepsia: but the Celestials
lose no time in making such hideous
noises as may be calculated to impress
the dragon with a sense of his mi
guilty and cause him to digorge his
strange meal with as little delay as
possible.
The Canadian Indians tell their
children that if they point at the
moon their fingers will be bitten off.
Some of the tribes of North America
believe that there is a frog in it, and
the Hindus can see on the moons face
something very like a hare; but among
ourselves the popular legends have
fixed upon a ma and a dog as its sole
inhabitants. The man in the moon is
generally supposed to have been con-
signed to his present abode as a pun
ishment for gathering sticks on the
Sabbath-the idea, it is said, having
probably originated from the reference
in the Book of Numbers to a man who
was stoned to death for a similar
offence.
A story is told of a gentleman with
astronomical proclivities who proudly
imagined he had discovered an eie-
,obon4 II, fha r,Nnp Gnhcan,anfJu
however, he was no doubt somewhat
disguised when the big animal was
found to be nothing more than
found its way into his telescope.
The potency of lunar influence in
worldly matters was at n time al
most universally acknowledged, and
even now many of the errors and
moon still hold their ground among
the rustic population of the country.
Not only is the restless ocean gov
erned by the pale luminary of night,
but o kind OF tidal arrangement wax
supposed to exist in the bodies of
animals, their marrow and brains
fiuctuating with the increase and
waning of the moon. 1t
is a popular belief that the rays
of the latter, falling upon a sleeping
person, cause his face to become dis
torted, and, as oil aver, even de-
priye him of his senses: in fact, luna
tics were SO named from their supposed
susceptibility to lunar influence, and
''moonstruck" is a common term for a
state of mental alteration bordering
on ~imbecility. 1t is still commonly
supposed, as it was in the days of the
Romans, that the violence of madness
increases with the noon and decreases
as the latter is waning, the worst
paroxysms occurring when the planet
is at the full.
With the ancients the age of the
moon was taken into consideration
when telling timber, and a correspon-
dent of Nature states that the super
stjtion on this point is still firmly
rooted in the public mind in Trinidad.
The phases of the Zoe are supposed
to exert a marked influence over the
growth of mushrooms; and, formerly,
in order that their flesh might not
waste in the cooking, the best time for
killing pigs was considered to be when
the moon was in the increase or near
the full.
one sometimes meets with the
superstition that when the moon comes
in and goes out on a Sunday, seed
planted during that month will not
grow. Hair, it is said, should be cut
az the new moon, otherwise it is liable
to fall off; corns, on the other hand.
should be cut during the waning of
the moon, in order that they MAJ
gradually diminish and ultimately
disappear. There are also many
other similar superstitions, the general
idea in them being that anything
which may be done before the full
moon is productive of increase or
growth, the contrary being the case
ii the moon be waning.
Some savages imagine that a fresh
moon is created every month, and it
may possibly have been a somewhat
similar idea that has caused the new
moon to become the subject of the
customs and superstitious
fancies which one not unfrequently
meets with. 1t is customary with
country people to bow or curtsey to
the new moon, and by some it is also
supposed that q wish made at such Il
time will be gratified. 1t is held, too,
that the money in ones pocket should
be turned for luck.
To see the new moon through glass,
however, is considered unlucky.
When the moon is on its back, that is
to. say with the horns of the