The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-09-30
IlF YOU SEE 1T IN THE MOON.
No Matter What 1t Is, You VIII Have
Some Sort of Luck.

"If you see the new moon over your
right shoulder it's good luck all the
month''-over the left shoulder being
bad luck, of course. IF you meet the
new moon face to face with money in
your pocket, you will have that kind of
money in your pocket for month
and so on. this last being taken from
an old black-letter treatise on things
worth knowing" Everywhere in the
world the idea prevails among those
who lack scientific training that any
thing falling to the lot of man when
the moon is waxing will likewise in
crease, similarly decreasing while the
moon wanes. The Hindoo troubled with
warts looks at the new moon. picks
up a pinch of dust from beneath his
left foot, rubs the wart with it-and
when the moon goes, so does the wart.
If you fall i'll you can be cured by herbs
gathered in the full of the moon.
The Moslems in the kingdom of Oudh
cure insomnia, palpitation of the heart,
nervous prostration, and similar evils
by stationing the sufferer with basin
full moon in such a way that its re-
fulgent image shines directly from the
liquid into his eyes. Then. without
moving his gaze, he is required to swal-
low the water at a draught.
In northern India the people lay out
food in the full moon that comes in the
months corresponding to our Septem-
L.
it to their friends as a means of insuring
longevity. That same night the girls
pour water in the moonlight saying
they are getting rid of the cold weather.
1t was long ago noted that the York
shire maids ''do worship the new moon
on their bare knees, kneeling upon an
earth-fast stone" and Lady Wilde says
that the Irish damsels drop on their
knees when they first catch sight of the
new moon and say: "Oh, moon leave us
as well as you found us!" In India the
natives take seven threads from the end
of their turbans and give them to the
new moon. with prayer.
The spots on the moon are caused by
many persons or things. Sometimes it
is man with fagot on his back. sent
thither for picking up sticks on the
Sabbath. Chaucer calls him thief and
puts a thornbush on his shoulders.
Dante says it is no less a criminal than
Cain. Shakespeare provides a dog to
keep him company. Hindoos keep. not
a man. but hare in the moon. and the
well-knoWn connection in the minds of
the man of the moon and insanity may
account for the statement regarding
the March mare, and possibly the thorn
bush may be the distinctive covering of
the hatter-at any rate, this is as good
guessing as lot of the sun myth people
have done: while Baring-Gould identi-
ties the moon children, Bill and Hiuki
of the northern mythology, with Jack
and Gill of the nursery rhyme.
The Greenland Eskimo believes that
the sun and moon were originally
brother and sister. She, being leased
by him past ordinary endurance, seized
some lampblack and rubbed it on his
face. Then she ran, her brother after.
Finally she went so fast she rose no
into the air and became the sun, while
her sooty-faced brother turned into the
moon. In Samoa when a great famine
oppressed the people the moon rose one
night. big and round, like bread fruit.
A patient mother, unable to quiet the
pangs of her little one, looked up ana
said: "Why don't you come down and
let my baby have bite of you?" This
made the moon so angry that she SIM
ply picked up both mother and child,
and they have been there ever since.
All sailors are certain that sleeping
in tropical moon rays will either make
them cross-eyed or blind. On the Amer
lean vessel Eel Captain year or two ago
a number of the crew, disregarding the
advice of their fellows during a spell of
hot weather, slept on the deck in the
moonlight, and soon after went COM
pletely blind at night, though they
could see as well in the daytime as ever.
The skipper of the ship reported the
occurrence, and with it made a state
ment to the effect that up to that time
he had been a disbeliever in the So
called moon blink. Paul Eve Steven
son reports ;hat he, too, was hurriedly
awakened on his way to New York from
the Bahamas with the assurance from
the captain that all sorts of things
would happen to him if he slept in
moonlight. This is a disease unknown
to the medical profession-Ch Chicago
Times-Herald.