The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-10
LUNAR sUPERsTITIONs.
Beliefs of Various Nations All Over
the World.

From the Chicago Times-H Herald
eff 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 tken from an old black
letter treatise on 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 Hindoo troubled with
warts looks at the new moon, picks up d
pinch of dust from beneath his left foot.
rubs the wart with it-and when the moon
goes so does the wart. If you fail ill., 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 a basin Of
water in his hand in the light of the full
moon in such q way that its refulgent
image shines directly from the liquid into
his eyes Then, without moving his gaze
he is required to swallow the water at
draught. In Northern India the people
lay out food in the full moon that comes
in the months corresponding to our Sep
TENDER and October, half OF each, and
give it to their friends as means of in
surfing 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
earthfast alone, and Lucy 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 a prayer. The spots on
the moon are caused by many persons or
things. Sometimes 1t is a 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 GRIM
inal than Cain. Shakespeare provides q
dog to keep him company. Hindoos keep.
not man, but a hare, in the moon, and
the well-known connection in the minds
of the man in the moon and insanity may
account for the statement regarding the
March hare, and possibly the thornbush
may be the instructive covering of the
halter. AT any rate. this is as good
guessing as a lot of the sun myth people
have done, while Barring Gould Identifies
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 broth-
er 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 up in the air and
became the sun, while her sooty-faced
brother turned into the moon In Samoa,
when great famine oppressed the people,
the moon rose one night. big and round
like bread fruit A patient mother, un-
able to quiet>the pang of her little one,
looked up and said: 'fWhy don't you
come down and let my baby have 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 III
tropical moon rays will either make tneh'
cross-eyed or blind. On the American YES
sci Ell Captain q year or two ago num-
Der of the crew, disregarding the ADVICE
of their fellows during a spell of nov
weather slept on the deck In the moon,
light and soon after went completely pima
at night, though they could see as Wen
in the daytime as ever. The skipper -
the ship reported the occurrence and WIZ
it made a statement to the effect tha1
up to that time he had been a disbelev-
er in the so-called blink. Paul Eve StsE
enson reports that he, too, was hurIleulg
awakened on his way to New York rom
the Bahamas with the assurance from "a IA
captain that all sorts of things wouit
happen to him If he slept in moonhsnJ
This is a disease unknown to the mealeA'
profession.