The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-09-23
POWER 0F THE MOON.
The Effect af the queen nj Night on
Various Peoples.

various Peoples.
IF You see the new moon over your
right shoulder. it's good uck 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 a month'-and SO on,
this last being taken from an old black
letter treatise or things worth knowing"
Everywhere in the world the idea prevails
among those who lack scientific training
that anything falling to the lot of man
when the moon Is waxing will likewise
increase, similarly decreasing while the
moon wanes. The Hindu 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
statioring the sufferer with a basin of
water in his hands in the light of the
full moon in such a way that Its refulgent
image hin directly from the liquid into
his eyes. Then. without moving his gaze
he is required to swallow the water at q
draught.
In Northern India the people lay out
food in the full moon that comes in the
months corresponding to our September
and October. half of each, and give 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 usr' In India the natives take
seven threads from the end of their tur-
bans ard give them to the new moon
with a prayer.
The spots on the moon are caused by
many persons or things. Sometimes it is
a man with a fagot on his back, sent
thither for picking up sticks on the Sab
bath. Chaucer calls him a 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.
1lHuuS keep, not a man, DQC a mare III
the moon. and the well known connec-
ton in the minds of the man of the
moon and insanity may account for the
statement regarding the March hare, and
possibly the thornbush may be the dis
tinctive covering of the hatter-at n
rate, this is as good guessing as a lot
of the sun myth people have done; while
Baring-Gould Identifies the moon chill
dren Bill and Hiuki of the northern
mythology, with Jack and Gill of the
nursery rhyme.
The Greenland Esquimaux believes that
the sun and moon were originally brother
and sister. She, being leased by him past
ordinary endurance, seized some lamp
black and rubbed it on his face. Then she
ran. her brother after. Finally she went
so fast she rose up into the air and be-
came 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 a bread fruit. A patient mother, I'M
able to quiet the pangs of her little one,
come down and let my baby have a bite of
your This made the moon so angry that
she simply 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 American yes
sci Ell Captain a year or two ago a NUM-
Der of the crew, disregarding the advice
of their fellows during a spell of hot
weather, slept on the deck in the moon
light, and soon after went completely
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 statement to the effect
that up to hat time he had been a dis
believer in the so-called moon blink.
Paul Eve Stevenson reports that he, too,
was huriedly 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.-Chicago Times
Herald