The morning call., 1890-07-21
THE MAN IN THE MOON.
Peculiar Notions Concerning the
Spots on the Queen of Night.

The dark spots in the moon have kindled
the Imagination of the people of all coun-
tries. Many have imagined they could
trace in them the face Of a beast. Ed
Meyer supposes that the Ibis-headed Thoth
was conseeTated the Moon God by the
Egyptians. on the idea that an Ibis was
represented by the spots on the moon. The
HindoOs recognized the form of a gazelle or
deer, and call the moon Mrigadhara or the
gazelle chariot According to the Cey-
lOnese, the hare was transferred by Buddha
to the moon because he recognized the hun
CRY, pigrm-clad God, and voluntarily laid
himself on the fire for his refreshment
The Mongols have Il similar legend, except
that for Buddha they substitute Boldo
Dsehagdschamuni, the supreme ruler of
heaven. The Aztecs have a legend that in
the beginning sun and moon were equally
bright, and the gods not liking it one of
them threw q rabbit in the moons face.
BackholZ speaks Of superstition that man
ought not to initiate the hare i'll the moon
by shadows cast on the wall, lest il pollute
the fingers. II is a North German joke that
an Inhabitant OF village near Hamburg
tied his pUcketkElfe on string and threw
it into the moon, where 1t draws up and
down and makes hCies ana spots. Accord
ing TO an Ober-Palatinate legend there is an
old giant VINO, when he is tired of going
atoot, swings himself on one Of the noun
tain peaks If the rising moon and
rides there. In South Africa the hare
was the ambassador of the gods TO men,
but instead of bringing them life he
brt ught death, for which the moOn-god
having split his nose, he retaliated by
scratching the moon in the face. There is
a Hindoo legend that lndra once, with the
help of Candra. the mOOn-god, seduced
Ahalya, the wife OF holy man. Candra
knew that the good man left his hut at
cock-crow for prayers and morning ablu-
lions in the Ganges, and croWed before mid
night. While the husband was gone Indra
assumed his appearance and went to the
WIFE, but the husband having been Informed
by the river goddess OF the premature crow
ing, hurried home and whipped both gods
severely, and inflicted on them the curse
that the marks Of he blows should remain
ineradieable. According to the Khasias "a
Himalayan tribe) the moon makes love
every month to his m0ther-in-law, who will
not listen TO him but throws ashes in his
face. The EsQuimauX say that the sun,
Maline, being pursued by his brother, the
moon, Anninga, blackened his face with
SCOT. According TO the natives OF Panama
and Guiana. the man in the moon was ban
ished there for committing incest with his
sister,
Sometimes the legend is connected with
biblical peTSonges a Wendisch popular
song has il that King David sits in the
moon playing his harp to another mans
wife.
According to Pratorius, the man in the
moon is the patriarch Isaac carrying bun
die of sticks to the altar Of Mount M0riah,
and according to Dante it is Cain carrying
a bundle of thorns as the meanest Offering
to God which his fields afforded. In Ire
land the people recognize the face of Adam
in the moon and that of Eve in the sun.
The tTelburgers recognize Judas lScarlot
sneezing in his hand before he hanged him.
self.
III any legends attribute the dark spots in
the moon TO giants and their iabors. One
has it that at the creation God threw an
offending angel into the moon; another
legend is that the moon witnessed the crea-
ton Of our first parents, and photographed
their forms upon his cOuntenance, but III
attempting to create men himself, he pro-
duced only a serpent. Among the Polyne-
SLAMS the man in the moon is an absent
chief. Others, as the EsquimauX, make the
moon the dwelling-place OF the dead; and
according to a Polynes ian saying, 1.-The
moon serves as food Tor the spirits of the
departed. Many recognize woman spin
ming, weaving or plating, or doing some
other task which will last until the end
found among the Potowolami. a
woman is sewing shirt in which
she puts one stitch every seven
years, which will finish the shirt by the end
of the world. In many countries the
legends have it that the man i'll the moon
Noo Udhio ilbd AllIIO Iva NSi4SiS IVA
violation of Sundays and holidays, and es-
peciaily for theft on Christmas eve; and in
the legends Of many lands we learn what
the man in the moon, or woman as 1T may
be, has to do and submit to, of which let
one example suffice: A farmer named
Moon, having been banished to the moon
for working on Sunday, promised his wife,
before his death, that he would return to
fetch her; he reused her at night, and babe
her wrap herself up very warm, as ii was
very cold in his new home, and she dressed
herself in a fur robe and wooden shoes.
The man appears before midnight and the
wife after, aud since her fur will not let in
the cold all the frost falls on the earth dur
ing her watch.-Deutsche Revue, Berlin.