Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1898-11-18
MOON MYTHS.
Strange Belle . Of Different Races
Of People
The Greenland EskimOs Believe sAe
Sum and Moon Were Originally
Brother and Sister - Some
of the Signs.

Brother and Sister Some
Of h Signs.
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 b
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 rom
an old black-letter treatise on things
worth knowing" Everywhere In the
world the idea prevails among thos
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 h
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 itCand
when the moon goes, so does the wart.
II you fall i'll you a 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 s~tationing the sufferer with a basin
of water in his hands in the light OF the
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 u Septem-
Der and October, half Of each, and give
It to their friends as q 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 a prayer.
The spots on the loon 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
Sabbath. Chaucer calls him a thief and
puts a thornbush on his shoulders.
Dante says it is no less q criminal than
Cain. Shakespeare provides a dog to
keep him company. Hindoos keep, not
a man, but a 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 a lot Of the sun myth people
have done; while Baring-Gould identi.
fes the moon children, Bill and Hulk!
of the northern mythology, with Jacl
and Gill Of the nursery rhyme.
The Greenland Eskimo believes that
the sun and moor were originally
brother and sister. She, being teased
by him past ordinary endurance, seized
some lampblack and rubbed it on hi.
face. Then she ran, her brother after
Finally she went so fast she rose W
into the air and became the sun, Will,
her ~sooty-faced brother turned into tn,
moon. In Samoa when a great famine
oppressed the people the moon rose on,
, night, big and round, like a bread fruit
A patient mother, unable to quiet tn,
! pangs of her little one, looked up ant
said: "Why don't you come down ant
let my baby have a bite of you%" Thi
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 sleepin,
in tropical moon rays will either max
them cross-eyed or blind. On the Amer
t lean vessel El Captain a year or two ag,
a number of the crew. disregarding tn
advice of their fellows during a spell o
hot weather, slept on the deck in tn,
moonlight, and soon after went com
! pletely blind at night. though the,
= could see as well in the daytime as ever
The skipper of the ship reported tn
a occurrence, and with it made a state
ment to the effect that up to that tim
he had been a disbeliever in the so
called moon blink. Paul Eve Steven
son reports that he, too, was hurriedl
awakened on his way to New York from
the Bahamas with the assurance from
the captain that all sorts of thing
would happen to him if he slept il
moonlight. This is a disease unknown
to the medical profession.|Chicag