Year: 1877

diTions.


Amongst the superstitions yet lingering
in the minds of mankind, none, perhaps,
is more universal than that of the man
in the moon. In England he is chiefly
immortalized by the old nursery rhyme,
but no further details are given of his
proceedings. German legends are, how
ever, more communicative, and sundry
traditions relate his history, varying in
different parts of the country.


A Swabian mother at Derendingen
tells her child that man was once work.
ing in his vineyard on Sunday, and after
having pruned all his vines, he made a
bundle of the shoots he had just cut of,
laid it in his basket and went home.
According to one version the vines were
stolen from a nelghbor's vineyard.
When taxed either with Sabbath break
ing, or with the theft, the culprit stoutly
protested his innocence, and finally ex-
claimed eff 1 have committed such
crime, may l go to the moon p After
his death, this fate duly befell him, and
there he remains to this day, condemned
to eat molten lead as punishment. The
Black Forest peasantry say that the dark
spots visible in the moon are caused by
man being spell there. He
stole bundle of wood on Sunday, be-
cause he thought on that day he should
be unmolested by the foresters. But he
had not gone far with it when he met
stranger, who was none other than the
Almighty himself. After reproving the
thief for not keeping the Sabbath day
holy, God said he must be punished !;
but he might choose whether he would
be banished to the sun or the moon.
The man chose the latter, declaring he
would rather freeze in the moon than
burn in the sun, and thus the "Besen-
mamie" or Broom-man came into
the moon with his faggot on his back.


Different versions are related in Linn
burg, where the man in the moon is be-
Geved to have stolen wood on Easter
morning while at Hemer, in West
ptalia, people say he was engaged in
fencing his field on Good Friday, and
had just poised a bunch of thorns on his
fork, when he was at once transported
to the moon. Some of the Hemer peas
ants declare that the moon is not only
inhabited by man with his thornbush
and pitch-fork, but likewise bya woman
churning. They are husband and wife,
and both broke the Sabbath, the man by
fencing his field, and the woman by
churning her butter, during the hours
of divine service.


All nations seem to have curious
desire to account for the spots in the
moon.


According to the Hindoos, Chandras,
the god of the moon bears hare in his
arms.


The Mongolians also believe the spots
represent hare. One of their deities
transformed himself into q hare in order
to feed a starving wayfarer and in
honor of this act of virtue the figure of
hare was thenceforth visible in the
moon.


The natives of Ceylon have a some
what similar legend. When Buddha
soiourned as hermit on earth, he one
day lost his way in a forest, and after
long wanderings he met hare, who
thus addressed him "I can help thee.
Do thou take the right hand path,
and [ will guide thee out of the wilder
ness"


81 thank thee" returned Buddha,
g but | am poor and starving, and am
unable to require thy kindness"


"If thou art hungry" replied the
hare, "light a fire, kill and eat me-"


Buddha lighted a fire as desired, and
the hare Immediately .leaped in ; but
Buddha now displayed his supernatural
powers, and, tearing the hare from the
flames, he placed it in the moon, where
he still abides. This story is related by
French traveller in Ceylon, and he adds
that his telescope was often borrowed
by the natives, in order that they might
inspect the hare in the moon.


Mullenhoff says that the people of
Rautum, in the Schleswig island of Sylt,
declare that the man in the moon is o
giant, who bends down at full tide to
scoop up the water and pour it on the
earth. At low tide he stands upright,
resting from his labors, so that the water
may subside.


We now come to the superstitions at
tached to the power of the moon, and
prominent among them is the idea that
no work may be undertaken in moon
shine. The Swabian people consider it a
great sin to spin or knit by moonlight,
as though one could not do enough by
day. That is the reason why the moon
does not give sufficient light for any
work. Whoever ventures to spin, for
example, weaves rope for the neck of
some relation. There are several stories
illustrating the danger of transgressing
this rule.


A poor woman at Breckenhelm, in
Swabia, gained her livelihood by spin
ming, and her diligence was so great that
she spent whole nights at her distaff in
order to save the expense of oil she
never lighted her lamp when there was
full moon. AS she thus sat spinning
in the moonshine, and the church clock
was tolling the hour of midnight, the
door opened and a strange man entered.
He had his arm full of distaffs, and said :
"If thou dost not spin all these full this
night, it will be all over with thee. +"
With these words he vanished, leaving
the poor woman in terrible fright.
Luckily she bethought herself of merely
spinning the distaffs once over, and in
this way she accomplished her task be-
fore daybreak. The stranger, who was
the evil one himself, reappeared at the
appointed time and silently took the
spindles away with him. But never
again did the woman spin by moon
light


Schonv erth says that the peasants of
the Upper Palantinate never leave their
carts or agricultural implements out OF
doors when the moon is shining, as it's
beams would break them. For the same
reason, linen must not be left hanging in
the moonshine, and superstitious folks