have supposed their thoughts occupied with a mere creature of
imagination, or gratuitous creation of an old-world mythology.
Perhaps the man in the moon is nothing more: perhaps he is very
much more. Possibly we have information of every being in the
universe; and possibly there are beings in every existing world of
which we know nothing whatever. The latter possibility we deem
much the more probable. Remembering our littleness as contrasted
with the magnitude of the whole creation, we prefer to believe that
there are rational creatures in other worlds besides this small-sized
sphere in, it may be, a small-sized system. Therefore, till we acquire
more conclusive evidence than has yet been adduced, we will not
regard even the moon as an empty abode, but as the home of beings
whom, in the absence of accurate definition, we denominate men.
Whether the man in the moon have a body like our own, whether his
breathing apparatus, his digestive functions, and his cerebral organs,
be identical with ours, are matters of secondary moment. The
Fabricator of terrestrial organizations has limited himself to no one
type or form, why then should man be the model of beings in distant
worlds? Be the man in the moon a biped or quadruped; see he
through two eyes as we do, or a hundred like Argus; hold he with
two hands as we do, or a hundred like Briarius; walk he with two
feet as we do, or a hundred like the centipede, "the mind's the
standard of the man" everywhere. If he have but a wise head and a
warm heart; if he be not shut up, Diogenes--like, within his own
little tub of a world, but take an interest in the inhabitants of kindred
spheres; and if he be a worshipper of the one God who made the
heavens with all their glittering hosts;--then, in the highest sense, he
is a _man_, to whom we would fain extend the hand of fellowship,
claiming him as a brother in that universal family which is confined
to no bone or blood, no colour or creed, and, so far as we can
conjecture, to no world, but is co-extensive with the household of
the Infinite Father, who cares for all of His children, and will
ultimately blend them in the blessed bonds of an endless
confraternity. Whether we or our posterity will ever become better
acquainted in this life with the man in the moon is problematical;
but in the ages to come, "when the manifold wisdom of God" shall
be developed among "the principalities and powers in heavenly
places," he may be something more than a myth or topic of
amusement. He may be visible among the first who will declare
every man in his own tongue wherein he was born the wonderful
works of God, and he may be audible among the first who will lift
their hallelujahs of undivided praise when every satellite shall be a
chorister to laud the universal King. Let us, brothers of earth, by
high and holy living, learn the music of eternity; and then, when the
discord of "life's little day" is hushed, and we are called to join in
the everlasting song, we may solve in one beatific moment the
problem of the plurality of worlds, and in that solution we shall see
more than we have been able to see at present of the man in the
moon.
III. THE WOMAN IN THE MOON.
"O woman! lovely woman! nature made thee
To temper man; we had been brutes without you.
Angels are painted fair, to look like you:
There's in you all that we believe of heaven
Amazing brightness, purity, and truth,
Eternal joy, and everlasting love."
(Otway's _Venice Preserved_, 1682.)
It is not good that the man in the moon should be alone; therefore
creative imagination has supplied him with a companion. The
woman in the moon as a myth does not obtain to any extent in
Europe; she is to be found chiefly in Polynesia, and among the
native races of North America. The _Middle Kingdom_ furnishes
the following allusion: "The universal legend of the man in the
moon takes in China a form that is at least as interesting as the ruder
legends of more barbarous people. The 'Goddess of the Palace of the
Moon,' Chang-o, appeals as much to our sympathies as, and rather
more so than, the ancient beldame who, in European folk-lore, picks
up perpetual sticks to satisfy the vengeful ideas of an ultra-Sabbatical
sect. Mr. G. C. Stent has aptly seized the idea of the Chinese
versifier whom he translates
"On a gold throne, whose radiating brightness
Dazzles the eyes--enhaloing the scene,
Sits a fair form, arrayed in snowy whiteness.
She is Chang-o, the beauteous Fairy Queen.
Rainbow-winged angels softly hover o'er her,
Forming a canopy above the throne;
A host of fairy beings stand before her,
Each robed in light, and girt with meteor zone.'" [62]
A touching tradition is handed down by Berthold that the moon is
Mary Magdalene, and the spots her tears of repentance. [63]
Fontenelle, the French poet and philosopher, saw a woman in the
moon's changes. "Everything," he says, "is in perpetual motion;
even including a certain young lady in the moon, who was seen with
a telescope about forty years ago, everything has considerably aged.
She had a pretty good face, but her cheeks are now sunken, her nose
is lengthened, her forehead and chin are now prominent to such an
extent, that all her charms have vanished, and I fear for her days."
"What are you relating to me now?" interrupted the marchioness.
"This is no jest," replied Fontenelle. "Astronomers perceived in the
moon a particular figure which had the aspect of a woman's head,
which came forth from between the rocks, and then occurred some
changes in this region. Some pieces of mountain fell, and disclosed
three points which could only serve to compose a forehead, a nose,
and an old woman's chin." [64] Doubtless the face and the
disfigurements were fictions of the author's lively imagination, and
his words savour less of science than of satire; but Fontenelle was
neither the first nor the last of those to whom "the inconstant moon
that monthly changes" has been an impersonation of the fickle and
the feminine. The following illustration is from Plutarch: "Cleobulus
said, As touching fooles, I will tell you a tale which I heard my
mother once relate unto a brother of mine. The time was (quoth she)
that the moone praied her mother to make her a peticoate fit and
proportionate for her body. Why, how is it possible (quoth her
mother) that I should knit or weave one to fit well about thee
considering that I see thee one while full, another while croissant or
in the wane and pointed with tips of horns, and sometime again
halfe rounde?" [65] Old John Lilly, one of our sixteenth-century
dramatists, likewise supports this ungallant theory. In the
_Prologus_ to one of his very rare dramas he writes:
"Our poet slumb'ring in the muses laps,
Hath seen a woman seated in the moone." [66]
This woman is Pandora, the mischief-maker among the Utopian
shepherds. In Act v. she receives her commission to conform the
moon to her own mutability:
"Now rule _Pandora_ in fayre _Cynthia's_ steede,
And make the moone inconstant like thyselfe,
Raigne thou at women's nuptials, and their birth,
Let them be mutable in all their loves.
Fantasticall, childish, and folish, in their desires
Demanding toyes; and stark madde
When they cannot have their will."
In North America the woman in the moon is a cosmological myth.
Take, for example, the tale told by the Esquimaux, which word is
the French form of the Algonquin Indian _Eskimantsic_, "raw-flesh
eaters." "Their tradition of the formation of the sun and moon is,
that not long after the world was formed, a great conjuror or angikak
became so powerful that he could ascend into the heavens when he
pleased, and on one occasion took with him a beautiful sister whom
he loved very much, and also some fire, to which he added great
quantities of fuel, and thus formed the sun. For a time the conjuror
treated his sister with great kindness, and they lived happily
together; but at last he became cruel, ill-used her in many ways, and,
as a climax, burnt one side of her face with fire. After this last
indignity she ran away from him and became the moon. Her brother
in the sun has been in chase of her ever since; but although he
sometimes gets near, will never overtake her. When new moon, the
burnt side of her face is towards the earth; when full moon, the
reverse is the case." [67] The likeness between this tradition and the
Greenlanders' myth of Malina and Anninga is very close, the
difference consisting chiefly in the change of sex; here the moon is
feminine, there the moon is masculine. [68]
In Brazil the story is further varied, in that it is the sister who
falls in love, and receives a discoloured face for her offence. Professor
Hartt says that Dr. Silva de Coutinho found on the Rio Branco and Sr.
Barbosa has reported from the Jamunda a myth "in which the moon
is represented as a maiden who fell in love with her brother and
visited him at night, but who was finally betrayed by his passing his
blackened hand over her face." [69]
The Ottawa tale of Indian cosmogony, called Iosco, narrates the
adventures of two Indians who "found themselves in a beautiful
country, lighted by the moon, which shed around a mild and
pleasant light. They could see the moon approaching as if it were
from behind a hill. They advanced, and the aged woman spoke to
them; she had a white face and pleasing air, and looked rather old,
though she spoke to them very kindly. They knew from her first
appearance that she was the moon. She asked them several
questions. She informed them that they were halfway to her
brother's (the sun), and that from the earth to her abode was half the
distance." [70]
Other American Indians have a tradition of an old woman who lived
with her grand-daughter, the most beautiful girl that ever was seen
in the country. Coming of age, she wondered that only herself and
her grandmother were in the world. The grandam explained that an
evil spirit had destroyed all others; but that she by her power had
preserved herself and her grand-daughter. This did not satisfy the
young girl, who thought that surely some survivors might be found.
She accordingly travelled in search, till on the tenth day she found a
lodge inhabited by eleven brothers, who were hunters. The eleventh
took her to wife, and died after a son was born. The widow then
wedded each of the others, beginning with the youngest. When she
took the eldest, she soon grew tired of him, and fled away by the
western portal of the hunter's lodge. Tearing up one of the stakes
which supported the door, she disappeared in the earth with her little
dog. Soon all trace of the fugitive was lost. Then she emerged from
the earth in the east, where she met an old man fishing in the sea.
This person was he who made the earth. He bade her pass into the
air toward the west. Meanwhile the deserted husband pursued his
wife into the earth on the west, and out again on the east, where the
tantalizing old fisherman cried out to him, "Go, go; you will run
after your wife as long as the earth lasts without ever overtaking her,
and the nations who will one day be upon the earth will call you
_Gizhigooke_, he who makes the day." From this is derived
_Gizis_, the sun. Some of the Indians count only eleven moons,
which represent the eleven brothers, dying one after another. [71]
Passing on to Polynesia, we reach Samoa, where "we are told that
the moon came down one evening, and picked up a woman, called
Sina, and her child. It was during a time of famine. She was
working in the evening twilight, beating out some bark with which
to make native cloth. The moon was just rising, and it reminded her
of a great bread-fruit. Looking up to it, she said, 'Why cannot you
come down and let my child have a bit of you?' The moon was
indignant at the idea of being eaten, came down forthwith, and took
her up, child, board, mallet, and all. The popular superstition is not
yet forgotten in Samoa of the _woman_ in the moon. 'Yonder is
Sina,' they say, 'and her child, and her mallet, and board.'" [72] The
same belief is held in the adjacent Tonga group, or Friendly Islands,
as they were named by Captain Cook, on account of the supposed
friendliness of the natives. "As to the spots in the moon, they are
compared to the figure of a woman sitting down and beating
_gnatoo_" (bark used for clothing). [73]
In Mangaia, the southernmost island of the Hervey cluster, the
woman in the moon is Ina, the pattern wife, who is always busy, and
indefatigable in the preparation of resplendent cloth, _i.e. white
clouds_. At Atiu it is said that Ina took to her celestial abode a
mortal husband, whom, after many happy years, she sent back to the
earth on a beautiful rainbow, lest her fair home should be defiled by
death. [74] Professor Max Mueller is reminded by this story of
Selene and Endymion, of Eos and Tithonos.
IV. THE HARE IN THE MOON.
When the moon is waxing, from about the eighth day to the full, it
requires no very vivid imagination to descry on the westward side of
the lunar disk a large patch very strikingly resembling a rabbit or
hare. The oriental noticing this figure, his poetical fancy developed
the myth-making faculty, which in process of time elaborated the
legend of the hare in the moon, which has left its marks in every
quarter of the globe. In Asia it is indigenous, and is an article of
religious belief. "To the common people in India the spots look like
a hare, _i.e._ Chandras, the god of the moon, carries a hare (sasa),
hence the moon is called Sasin or Sasanka, hare mark or spot." [75]
Max Mueller also writes, "As a curious coincidence it may be
mentioned that in Sanskrit the moon is called Sasanka,_i.e._ 'having
the marks of a hare,' the black marks in the moon being taken for the
likeness of the hare." [76] This allusion to the sacred language of the
Hindus affords a convenient opportunity of introducing one of the
most beautiful legends of the East. It is a Buddhist tract; but in the
lesson which it embodies it will compare very favourably with
many a tract more ostensibly Christian.
"In former days, a hare, a monkey, a coot, and a fox, became
hermits, and lived in a wilderness together, after having sworn not
to kill any living thing. The god Sakkria having seen this through
his divine power, thought to try their faith, and accordingly took
upon him the form of a brahmin, and appearing before the monkey
begged of him alms, who immediately brought to him a bunch of
mangoes, and presented it to him. The pretended brahmin, having
left the monkey, went to the coot and made the same request, who
presented him a row of fish which he had just found on the bank of
a river, evidently forgotten by a fisherman. The brahmin then went
to the fox, who immediately went in search of food, and soon
returned with a pot of milk and a dried liguan, which he had found
in a plain, where apparently they had been left by a herdsman. The
brahmin at last went to the hare and begged alms of him. The hare
said, 'Friend, I eat nothing but grass, which I think is of no use to
you.' Then the pretended brahmin replied, 'Why, friend, if you are a
true hermit, you can give me your own flesh in hope of future
happiness.' The hare directly consented to it, and said to the
supposed brahmin, 'I have granted your request, and you may do
whatever you please with me.' The brahmin then replied, 'Since you
are willing to grant my request, I will kindle a fire at the foot of the
rock, from which you may jump into the fire, which will save me
the trouble of killing you and dressing your flesh.' The hare readily
agreed to it, and jumped from the top of the rock into the fire which
the supposed brahmin had kindled; but before he reached the fire, it
was extinguished; and the brahmin appearing in his natural shape of
the god Sakkria, took the hare in his arms and immediately drew its
figure in the moon, in order that every living thing of every part of
the world might see it." [77] All will acknowledge that this is a very
beautiful allegory. How many in England, as well as in Ceylon, are
described by the monkey, the coot, and the fox--willing to bring
their God any oblation which costs them nothing; but how few are
like the hare--ready to present themselves as a living sacrifice, to be
consumed as a burnt offering in the Divine service! Those, however,
who lose their lives in such self-sacrifice, shall find them, and be
caught up to "shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the
stars for ever and ever."
Another version of this legend is slightly variant. Grimm says: "The
people of Ceylon relate as follows: While Buddha the great god
sojourned upon earth as a hermit, he one day lost his way in a wood.
He had wandered long, when a _hare_ accosted him: 'Cannot I help
thee? Strike into the path on thy right. I will guide thee out of the
wilderness.' Buddha replied: 'Thank thee, but I am poor and hungry,
and unable to repay thy kindness.' 'If thou art hungry,' said the hare,
'light a fire, and kill, roast, and eat me.' Buddha made a fire, and the
hare immediately jumped in. Then did Buddha manifest his divine
power; he snatched the beast out of the flames, and set him in the
moon, where he may be seen to this day." [78] Francis Douce, the
antiquary, relates this myth, and adds, "this is from the information
of a learned and intelligent French gentleman recently arrived from
Ceylon, who adds that the Cingalese would often request of him to
permit them to look for the hare through his telescope, and exclaim
in raptures that they saw it. It is remarkable that the Chinese
represent the moon by a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar. Their
mythological moon Jut-ho is figured by a beautiful young woman
with a double sphere behind her head, and a rabbit at her feet. The
period of this animal's gestation is thirty days; may it not therefore
typify the moon's revolution round the earth." [79]
[Illustration: moon08]
SAKYAMUNI AS A HARE IN THE MOON.
_Collin de Plancy's_ "_Dictionnaire Infernal_."
In this same apologue we have doubtless a duplicate, the original or
a copy, of another Buddhist legend found among the Kalmucks of
Tartary; in which Sakyamuni himself, in an early stage of existence,
had inhabited the body of a hare. Giving himself as food to feed the
hunger of a starving creature, he was immediately placed in the
moon, where he is still to be seen. [80]
The Mongolian also sees a hare in the lunar shadows. We are told
by a Chinese scholar that "tradition earlier than the period of the
Han dynasty asserted that a hare inhabited the surface of the moon,
and later Taoist fable depicted this animal, called the gemmeous
hare, as the servitor of the genii, who employ it in pounding the
drugs which compose the elixir of life. The connection established
in Chinese legend between the hare and the moon is probably
traceable to an Indian original. In Sanskrit inscriptions the moon is
called Sason, from a fancied resemblance of its spots to a leveret;
and pandits, to whom maps of the moon's service have been shown,
have fixed on _Loca Paludosa_, and _Mons Porphyrites_ or
_Keplerus_ and _Aristarchus_, for the spots which they think
exhibit the similitude of a hare." [81] On another page of the same
work we read: "During the T'ang dynasty it was recounted that a
cassia tree grows in the moon, this notion being derived apparently
from an Indian source. The _sal_ tree (_shorea robusta_), one of the
sacred trees of the Buddhists, was said during the Sung dynasty to
be identical with the cassia tree in the moon. The lunar hare is said
to squat at the foot of the cassia tree, pounding its drugs for the
genii. The cassia tree in the moon is said to be especially visible at
mid-autumn, and hence to take a degree at the examinations which
are held at this period is described as plucking a leaf from the
cassia." [82]
This hare myth, attended with the usual transformation, has
travelled to the Hottentots of South Africa. The fable which follows
is entitled "From an original manuscript in English, by Mr. John
Priestly, in Sir G. Grey's library." "The moon, on one occasion, sent
the hare to the earth to inform men that as she (the moon) died away
and rose again, so mankind should die and rise again. Instead,
however, of delivering this message as given, the hare, either out of
forgetfulness or malice, told mankind that as the moon rose and died
away, so man should die and rise no more. The hare, having
returned to the moon, was questioned as to the message delivered,
and the moon, having heard the true state of the case, became so
enraged with him that she took up a hatchet to split his head; falling
short, however, of that, the hatchet fell upon the upper lip of the
hare, and cut it severely. Hence it is that we see the 'hare-lip.' The
hare, being duly incensed at having received such treatment, raised
his claws, and scratched the moon's face; and the dark parts which
we now see on the surface of the moon are the scars which she
received on that occasion." [83] In an account of the Hottentot myth
of the "Origin of Death," the angered moon heats a stone and burns
the hare's mouth, causing the hare-lip. [84] Dr. Marshall may tell us,
with all the authority of an eminent physiologist, that hare-lip is
occasioned by an arrest in the development of certain frontal and
nasal processes, [85] and we may receive his explanation as a
sweetly simple solution of the question; but who that suffers from
this leporine-labial deformity would not prefer a supernatural to a
natural cause? Better far that the lip should be cleft by Shakespeare's
"foul fiend Flibbertigibbet," than that an abnormal condition should
be accounted for by science, or comprised within the reign of
physical law.
Even Europe is somewhat hare-brained: for Caesar tells us that the
Britons did not regard it lawful to eat the hare, though he does not
say why; and in Swabia still, children are forbidden to make
shadows on the wall to represent the sacred hare of the moon.
We may pursue this matter even in Mexico, whose deities and
myths a recent Hibbert lecturer brought into clearer light, showing
that the Mexicans "possessed beliefs, institutions, and a developed
mythology which would bear comparison with anything known to
antiquity in the old world." [86] The Tezcucans, as they are usually
called, are described by Prescott as "a nation of the same great
family with the Aztecs, whom they rivalled in power, and surpassed
in intellectual culture and the arts of social refinement." [87] Their
account of the creation is that "the sun and moon came out equally
bright, but this not seeming good to the gods, one of them took a
rabbit by the heels and slung it into the face of the moon, dimming
its lustre with a blotch, whose mark may be seen to this day." [88]