The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-10-26
-Dietz on Science
NURSERY RHYME
is TRACED TO
MYTH OF MOON
Jack and Jill Believed to
Have Descended From
Morse Poem.
BY DAVID DIETZ
seripps-Howard Science Editor

BY DAVID DIETZ
seripps- Howard Science Editor
Every one knows the old nursery
rhyme which recounts the ad-
ventures Of Jack and Jill:
Jack and jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail Of water;
Jack fell down and broke his
crown,
And Jill came tumbling after"
But few people, perhaps, realize
that lunar myth is concealed with
in the Jingle. That is the opinion
held by many students of mythology
The Volu-Spa, an an .ent Morse
poem, calls the moon-god Mani,
and tells that Mani transported two
children from earth to the moon
These children were named Bill and
Hjuh and were seized by Mani as
they were drawing water from a
we'll According to the poem, they
can be seen in the moon with their
bucket.
Book Explains Tale
The most familiar legend makes
the spots on the moon resemble a
man, but in Sweden, even today,
there is the tradition that the spots
form two children carrying a bucket
of water. 1t is entirely reasonable,
therefore, to trace a connection be-
tween the old Morse mythology and
the familiar nursery rhyme.
This connection vas discussed at
length in Curious Myths of the
Middle Ages" published in London
in 1877. S. Baring-Gould was the
author. Barring Gould wrote:
"Hjuki, in Morse, would be pro-
nounced Juki, which would readily
become Jack; and Bill, for the sake
of euphony and in order to give a
female name to one Of the children
would become Jill.
Significance Deep
THE fall of Jack, and the subse-
quent fall of Jill, simply represent
the vanishing of one moon spot after
another, as the moon wanes.
But the old Morse myth had a
deeper Specification than merely an
explanation of the moon spots
Hulk is derived from the verb
jakka, to heap or pile together, to
assemble and increase; and Bill
from bila, to break up or dissolve
Hulk and Bill, therefore, signify
nothing more than the waxing and
the waning of the neon, and the
water they are represented as bear
ing signifies the fact that the rain
fall depends on the phases of the
moon.
Waxing and waning were indi-
vidualiZed, and the meteorological
fact of the connection of the rain
with the moon was represented by
the Children as water bearers"
Theory Is Blasted
In this connection, it should be
mentioned, perhaps, that the old
idea that the phases of the moon
controlled the weather, has been
completely exploded. It still per-
Sists and occasionally one will meet
with an amateur weather prophet
who insists that the sky is never
cloudy when the moon is full. Rec
ordS, however, prove concluSively
that the sky is frequently cloudy at
the time of full moon.
Most of the old British German
legends picture the spots on the
moon as forming a man. He is rep
resented variously as carrying 6
thorn bush over his shoulder Oh
some stolen object He is supposed
to have been banished to the moon
either for theft or Sabbath break
ing.
Baring-Gould believes that these
legends grew out of the older Morse
ones. He continues:
But though Jack and Jill became
by degrees discovered in the popu-
lar mind from the moon, the origi-
nal myth went through a fresh
phase and exists still under a new
form.
Image Is Faint
THE Morse superstition attributed
theft to the moon, and the vulgar
soon began to believe that the fig
ure they saw in the moon was the
thief.
THE lunar specks certainly may
be made to resemble one figure, but
only a lively imagination can dis
Germ two. The girl soon dropped
out of popular mythology, the boy
oldened into a venerable man anc
the bucket was transformed int
the thing he had stolen-sticks o.
vegetables. The theft was in some
places exchanged for Sabbath
breaking"
This same origin of the man il
the moon was also suggested b!
Jacob Grimm in his "TeutoniC
Mythology"
Plainly enough" wrote Grimm
"the water-pole of the heather story
Aas haav, fro r,cfOry,noL into tho ovas,