Cantongee, in the island of Borneo, on the 10th of November, 1714.
"We sat very merry till about eight at night, when, preparing to go to
bed, we heard all on a sudden a most terrible outcry, mixed with
squealing, halloing, whooping, firing of guns, ringing and clattering
of gongs or brass pans, that we were greatly startled, imagining
nothing less but that the city was surprised by the rebels. I ran
immediately to the door, where I found my old fat landlord
roaring and whooping like a man raving mad. This increased my
astonishment, and the noise was so great that I could neither be
heard, nor get an answer to know what the matter was. At last I
cried as loud as possibly I could to the old man to know the reason
of this sad confusion and outcry, who in a great fright pointed up to
the heavens, and said, '_Look there; see, the devil is eating up the
moon_!' I was very glad to hear that there was no other cause of
their fright but their own ignorance. It was only a great eclipse of
the moon. I smiled, and told him that there was no danger; that in a
little while the moon would be as well as ever. Whereupon, catching
fast hold of my sleeve, as I was returning to bed, he asked me if I
was sure on't (for they take us white men to be very wise in those
matters). I assured him I was, and that we always knew many years
before when such a thing would happen; that it proceeded from a
natural cause, according to the course and motion of the sun and
moon, and that the devil had no hand in it. After the eclipse was
over, the old man, being not a little rejoiced, took me in." [300]
Another writer speaks of the East India Islands in general. "There is
to this day hardly a country of the Archipelago in which the
ceremony of frightening the supposed monster from his attack on
the luminary is not performed. This consists in shouting, in striking
gongs, but, above all, in striking their stampers against the sides of
the wooden mortars which are used by the villagers in husking their
corn." [301] That the Indians of the continent regard the phenomena
in question with more than ordinary interest is evinced by their
resorting in large numbers to Benares, the ancient seat of
brahminical learning and religion, on every occasion of an eclipse of
the moon. Lord Kames reminds us that among the Greeks "an
eclipse being held a prognostic given by the gods of some grievous
calamity, Anaxagoras was accused of atheism for attempting to
explain the eclipse of the moon by natural causes: he was thrown
into prison, and with difficulty was relieved by the influence of
Pericles. Protagoras was banished Athens for maintaining the same
doctrine." [302]
Thucydides tells us that an eclipse of the moon delayed the
departure of the expedition against the Syracusans. "The
preparations were made, and they were on the point of sailing, when
the moon, being just then at the full, was eclipsed. The mass of the
army was greatly moved, and called upon the generals to remain.
Nicias himself, who was too much under the influence of divination
and omens, refused even to discuss the question of their removal
until they had remained thrice nine days, as the soothsayers
prescribed. This was the reason why the departure of the Athenians
was finally delayed." [303]
"At any eclipse of the moone, the Romanes would take their brazen
pots and pannes, and beat them, lifting up many torches and linckes
lighted, and firebrandes into the aire, thinking by these superstitious
meanes to reclaime the moone to her light." [304]
_The Constantinople Messenger_ of December 23rd, 1880, contains
the following:--"Mgr. Mamarbasci, who represents the Syrian
Patriarch at the Porte, and who resides in St. Peter's Monastery in
Galata, underwent a singular experience on the evening of the last
eclipse of the moon. Hearing a great noise outside of the firing of
revolvers and pistols, he opened his window to see what could be
the cause of so much waste of powder. Being a native of Aleppo, he
was at no loss to understand the cause of the disturbance as soon as
he cast his eye on the heavens, and he therefore immediately
withdrew his head from the window again. Hardly had he done so,
however, ere a ball smashed the glass into a thousand pieces. Rising
from the seat into which he had but just sat down, he perceived a
conical ball on the floor of his room, which there is every reason to
believe would have killed him on the spot had he remained a
moment longer on the spot he had just quitted. From the yard of the
mosque of Arab-Djami, which is in front of the prelate's window,
the bullet had, it appears, been fired with the intention of frightening
the dragon or bear which, according to oriental superstition, lies in
wait to devour the moon at its eclipse. It is a fortunate circumstance
that the Syrian ecclesiastic escaped scathless from the snares laid to
destroy the celestial dragon." [305]
In the _Edda_, an ancient collection of Scandinavian poetry,
embodying the national mythology, Managarmer is the monster who
sometimes swallows up the moon, and stains the heaven and the air
with blood. "Here," says M. Mallett, "we have the cause of eclipses;
and it is upon this very ancient opinion that the general practice is
founded, of making noises at that time, to fright away the monster,
who would otherwise devour the two great luminaries." [306] Of the
Germans, Grimm says:--"In a lighted candle, if a piece of the wick
gets half detached and makes it burn away too fast, they say 'a
_wolf_ (as well as a thief) is in the candle'; this too is like the wolf
devouring the sun or moon. Eclipses of sun or moon have been a
terror to many heathen nations; the incipient and increasing
obscuration of the luminous orb marks for them the moment when
the gaping jaws of the wolf threaten to devour it, and they think by
loud cries to bring it succour." [307] And again:--"The personality
of the sun and moon shows itself moreover in a fiction that has
well-nigh gone the round of the world. These two, in their unceasing
unflagging career through the void of heaven, appear to be in flight,
avoiding some pursuer. A pair of wolves are on their track, _Skoell_
dogging the steps of the sun, _Hati_ of the moon: they come of a
giant race, the mightiest of whom, Managarmr (moon-dog),
apparently but another name for Hati, is sure some day to _overtake
and swallow the moon_." [308] Francis Osborn, whose _Advice_
contains, in the opinion of Hallam, "a considerable sprinkling of
sound sense and observation," thus counsels his son: "Imitate not
the wild Irish or Welch, who, during eclipses, run about beating
kettles and pans, thinking their clamour and vexations available to
the assistance of the higher orbs." [309] "In eclipses of the moon,
the Greenlanders carry boxes and kettles to the roofs of their houses,
and beat on them as hard as they can." [310] With the Californian
Indians, "on an eclipse, all is consternation. They congregate and
sing, as some say to appease, and others to frighten, the evil spirits.
They believe that the devils are eating up the luminary, and they do
not cease until it comes forth in its wonted splendour." [311]
Among certain Indian tribes "dogs were supposed to stand in some
peculiar relation to the moon, probably because they howl at it, and
run at night; uncanny practices which have cost them dear in
reputation. The custom prevailed among tribes so widely asunder as
Peruvians, Tupis, Creeks, Iroquois, Algonkins, and Greenland
Eskimos, to thrash the curs most soundly during an eclipse. The
Creeks explained this by saying that the big dog was swallowing the
sun, and that by whipping the little ones they could make him desist.
What the big dog was they were not prepared to say. We know. It
was the night goddess, represented by the dog, who was thus
shrouding the world at midday." [312]
It is well known that Columbus found his acquaintance with the
calculations of astronomy of great practical value. For when, during
his last expedition, he was reduced to famine by the inhabitants of
the newly discovered continent, who kept him and his companions
prisoners, he, aware that an eclipse was at hand, threatened to
deprive them of the light of the moon, if they did not forthwith bring
him provisions. At first they did not care; but when the moon
disappeared, they brought abundance of supplies, with much
entreaty of pardon. This occurred on the 1st day of March, 1504, a
date which modern tables of lunar eclipses may fully verify.
"In the Mexican mythology we read of the woman serpent, or the
moon, devoured by the sun, a myth probably descriptive of the
changes in the phases of the moon." [313] More probably this myth
referred to the moon's eclipse; for Bradford tells us that "the
Mexicans believed when there was an eclipse of the sun or moon,
that one of those bodies was being devoured by the other. The
Peruvians believed these phenomena portended some great
calamity; that the eclipsed body was sick and about to die, in which
case the world would perish. As soon as an eclipse commenced,
they made a dreadful noise with their musical instruments; they
struck their dogs and made them howl, in the hope that the moon,
which they believed had an affection for those animals in
consequence of some signal service which they had rendered her,
would have pity on their cries. The Araucanians called eclipses the
'deaths' of the sun and moon." [314] In Aglio we are told of the
Mexicans that "in the year of Five Rabbits, or in 1510, there was an
eclipse of the sun; they take no account of the eclipses of the moon,
but only of those of the sun; for they say that the sun devours the
moon when an eclipse of the moon takes place." [315] "The
Tlascaltecs, regarding the sun and the moon as husband and wife,
believed eclipses to be domestic quarrels. Ribas tells how the
Sinaloas held that the moon in an eclipse was darkened with the
dust of battle. Her enemy had come upon her, and a terrible fight,
big with consequence to those on earth, went on in heaven. In wild
excitement the people beat on the sides of their houses, encouraging
the moon, and shooting flights of arrows up into the sky to distract
her adversary. Much the same as this was also done by certain
Californians." [316] "At a lunar eclipse the Orinoko Indians seized
their hoes and laboured with exemplary vigour on their growing
corn, saying the moon was veiling herself in anger at their habitual
laziness." [317] The umbrated moon did good in this way: as many
of us remember the beautiful comet of 1858 did good, when it
frightened some trembling Londoners into a speedy settlement of
old debts, in anticipation of the final account. Ellis says of the
Tahitians: "An eclipse of the moon filled them with dismay; they
supposed the planet was _natua_, or under the influence of the spell
of some evil spirit that was destroying it. Hence they repaired to the
temple, and offered prayers for the moon's release. Some imagined
that on an eclipse, the sun and moon were swallowed by the god
which they had by neglect offended. Liberal presents were offered,
which were supposed to induce the god to abate his anger, and eject
the luminaries of day and night from his stomach." [318] The
Tongans or Friendly Islanders have a notion that the earth's surface
is flat, that the sun and moon "pass through the sky and come back
some way, they know not how. When the moon is eclipsed, they
attribute the phenomenon to a thick cloud passing over it: the same
with the sun." [319] In the Hervey Islands, the common exclamation
during an eclipse is, "Alas! a divinity has devoured the moon!"
Finally, to close this chapter where it commenced, in Chaldaea, the
cradle of _star-reading_, Sir Austen Henry Layard says: "I gained,
as other travellers have done before me, some credit for wisdom and
superhuman knowledge by predicting, through the aid of an
almanack, a partial eclipse of the moon. It duly took place, to the
great dismay of my guests, who well-nigh knocked out the bottoms
of all my kitchen utensils in their endeavour to frighten away the
jins who had thus laid hold of the planet. The common notion
amongst ignorant Mahometans is, that an eclipse is caused by some
evil spirit catching hold of the sun or moon. On such occasions, in
Eastern towns, the whole population assembles with pots, pans, and
other equally rude instruments of music, and, with the aid of their
lungs, make a din and turmoil which might suffice to drive away a
whole army of evil spirits, even at so great a distance." [320] We
have reached three general conclusions. _First_, when the moon is
occulted by the earth it is believed to be devoured by some evil
demon, or by wolves or dogs. This is the superstitious vagary of the
Hindoos, the Chinese, Asiatics generally, Europeans, Africans,
Americans, and Polynesians. _Secondly_, a lunar eclipse is the
precursor of some dreadful calamity to the inhabitants of the earth.
This notion is also traceable in every quarter of the globe. And
_thirdly_, during the obscuration the light of the moon is reddened,
and at last extinguished, by the blood which flows from its wounds;
which belief originates with the _Edda_, and obtains in the Western
world. Students of sacred prophecy may still elect to deem these
occurrences that are purely natural as of supernatural significance,
and may risk the interests of true religion in their insane disregard of
science; but the truth will remain, in spite of their misconceptions,
that eclipses of the moon have no concern with the moral destiny of
mankind.
IV. LUNAR INFLUENCES.
The superficies of the earth being twice seven times that of the
moon, what an influence the earth must exercise over its satellite!
We may be unable to describe this influence in all of its effects; but
we may observe its existence in some of its apparent signs. The
moon not only turns while we turn, but its rotations on its axis keep
exact time with its revolutions round our globe; it accompanies us as
we encircle the sun, facing us all the while, never turning its back
upon us; it waits on us like a link-bearer, or lackey; is our admiring
Boswell, living and moving and having its being in the equability it
derives from attending its illustrious master. An African sage once
illustrated this philosophical principle of the greater controlling the
less, by the following fine conundrum. "Why does the dog waggle
his tail?" This problem, being beyond his auditors, was given up.
The sage made answer, "Because the dog is bigger than the tail; else
the tail would waggle the dog." It is alarming to contemplate the
effect which the moon might have upon our august earth, if it were
fourteen times larger instead of fourteen times smaller in extent of
surface. As it is, Luna's influences are so many and so mighty, that
we will require considerable space merely to set them in order, and
to substantiate them with a few facts. We believe that most, if not
all, of them, are the offspring of superstition; but we shall none the
less find them in every land, in every age. In the nineteenth century
as well as in the dark ages, in London as well as in the ends of the
earth, men of all colours and clans are found turning their faces
heavenward to read their duty and destiny in the oracular face of the
moon. Many consult their almanacks more than their Bibles, and
follow the lunar phases as their sole interpretation of the will of
God.
Among those who worship the moon as a personal deity, whether
beneficent or malign, its influences are of course welcomed or
dreaded as the manifestations of supreme power. In South America,
for example, "the Botocudos are said to give the highest rank among
the heavenly bodies to Taru, the moon, as causing thunder and
lightning and the failure of vegetables and fruits, and as even
sometimes falling to the earth, whereby many men die." [321] So, in
Africa, the emotions of the worshippers vary with their subjective
views of their god. "Negro tribes seem almost universally to greet
the new moon, whether in delight or disgust. The Guinea people
fling themselves about with droll gestures, and pretend to throw
firebrands at it; the Ashango men behold it with superstitious fear;
the Fetu negroes jumped thrice into the air with hands together and
gave thanks." [322] But even amongst men who neither personify
nor deify the moon, its dominion over the air, earth, and sea, over
human health and happiness, is held to be so all-important, that if
the Maker and Monarch of all were jealous, as men count jealousy,
such lunar fears and affections would be unpardonable sin.
Let us proceed to particulars, rising from inorganic nature to beings
endowed with the highest instruments of life. Even the mineral
kingdom is supposed to be swayed by the moon; for in Scotland,
Martin says, "The natives told me, that the rock on the east side of
Harries, in the Sound of Island Glass, hath a vacuity near the front,
on the north-west side of the Sound; in which they say there is a
stone that they call the _Lunar Stone_, which advances and retires
according to the increase and decrease of the moon." [323] An
ancient instance of belief in lunar influence upon inanimate matter is
cited by Plutarch. "_Euthydemus_ of _Sunium_ feasted us upon a
time at his house, and set before us a wilde bore, of such bignesse,
that all wee at the table wondred thereat; but he told us that there
was another brought unto him farre greater; mary naught it was, and
corrupted in the carriage, by the beames of the moone-shine;
whereof he made great doubt and question, how it should come to
passe; for that he could not conceive, nor see any reason, but that
the sunne should rather corrupt flesh, being as it was, farre hotter
than the moone." [324] Pliny said that the moon corrupted carcases
of animals exposed to its malefic rays. As with the lifeless, so with
the living. "The inhabitants of St. Kilda observe that when the April
moon goes far in May, the fowls are ten or twelve days later in
laying their eggs than ordinarily they use to be." [325] The influence
of the moon upon vegetation is an opinion hoary with age. In the
_Zend-Avesta_ we read, "And when the light of the moon waxes
warmer, golden-hued plants grow on from the earth during the
spring." [326] An old English author writes:--
"Sowe peason and beanes, in the wane of the moone,
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soone
That they with the planet may rest and arise,
And flourish, with bearing most plentiful wise." [327]
Cucumbers, radishes, turnips, leeks, lilies, horseradish, saffron, and
other plants, are said to increase during the fulness of the moon; but
onions, on the contrary, are much larger and are better nourished
during the decline. [328] To recur to Plutarch is to find him saying:
"The moone showeth her power most evidently even in those
bodies, which have neither sense nor lively breath; for carpenters
reject the timber of trees fallen in the ful-moone, as being soft and
tender, subject also to the worme and putrifaction, and that quickly,
by reason of excessive moisture; husbandmen, likewise, make haste
to gather up their wheat and other grain from the threshing-floore, in
the wane of the moone, and toward the end of the month, that being
hardened thus with drinesse, the heape in the garner may keepe the
better from being fustie, and continue the longer; whereas corne
which is inned and laied up at the full of the moone, by reason of
the softnesse and over-much moisture, of all other, doth most cracke
and burst. It is commonly said also, that if a leaven be laied in the
ful-moone, the paste will rise and take leaven better." [329] Still in
Cornwall the people gather all their medicinal plants when the moon
is of a certain age; which practice is very probably a relic of
druidical superstition. "In some parts it is a prevalent belief that the
growth of mushrooms is influenced by the changes of the moon, and
in Essex the subjoined rule is often scrupulously adhered to:--
"When the moon is at the full,
Mushrooms you may freely pull
But when the moon is on the wane,
Wait ere you think to pluck again.'" [330]
Henderson says, "I may, perhaps, mention here, that apples are said
to 'shrump up' in Devonshire if picked when the moon is waning."
[331] A writer of miscellaneous literature tells us that "it has been
demonstrated that moonlight has the power, _per se_, of awakening
the sensitive plant, and consequently that it possesses an influence
of some kind on vegetation. It is true that the influence is very
feeble, compared with that of the sun; but the action is established,
and the question remains, what is the practical value of the fact? 'It
will immediately,' says Professor Lindley, 'occur to the reader that
possibly the screens which are drawn down over hothouses at
night, to prevent loss of heat by radiation, may produce some
unappreciated injury by cutting off the rays of the moon, which
nature intended to fall upon plants as much as the rays of the sun."
[332] The same author says elsewhere, "Columella, Cato, Vitruvius,
and Pliny, all had their notions of the advantages of cutting timber at
certain ages of the moon; a piece of mummery which is still
preserved in the royal ordonnances of France to the conservators of
the forests, who are directed to fell oaks only 'in the wane of the
moon' and 'when the wind is at north.'" [333] Of trees, astrologers
affirm that the moon rules the palm tree (which the ancients say
"sends forth a twig every time the moon rises") and all plants, trees,
and herbs that are juicy and full of sap. [334]
"A description of the New Netherlands, written about 1650, remarks
that the savages of that land 'ascribe great influence to the moon
over crops.' This venerable superstition, common to all races, still
lingers among our own farmers, many of whom continue to observe
'the signs of the moon' in sowing grain, setting out trees, cutting
timber, and other rural avocations." [335] What is here said of the
new world applies also to the old; for in England a current
expression in Huntingdonshire is "a dark Christmas sends a fine
harvest": dark meaning moonless.
Of the lunar influence upon the tides, old John Lilly writes: "There
is nothing thought more admirable, or commendable in the sea, than
the ebbing and flowing; and shall the moone, from whom the sea
taketh this virtue, be accounted fickle for encreasing and
decreasing?" [336] Another writer of the sixteenth century says,
"The moone is founde, by plaine experience, to beare her greatest
stroke uppon the seas, likewise in all things that are moiste, and by
consequence in the braines of man." [337] Dennys tells us that "the
influence exerted by the moon on tides is recognised by the
Chinese." [338] What some record in prose, others repeat in rhyme.
The following is _one_ kind of poetry.
"Moone changed, keepes closet, three daies as a Queene,
Er she in hir prime, will of any be scene:
If great she appereth, it showreth out,
If small she appereth, it signifieth drout.
At change or at full, come it late, or else soone,
Maine sea is at highest, at midnight and noone,
But yet in the creekes, it is later high flood:
Through farnesse of running, by reason as good." [339]
Indirectly, through the influence upon the tides, the moon is
concerned in human mortality.
"Tyde flowing is feared, for many a thing,
Great danger to such as be sick it doth bring.
Sea eb, by long ebbing, some respit doth give,
And sendeth good comfort, to such as shal live." [340]
Henderson says, "It is a common belief along the east coast of
England, from Northumberland to Kent, that deaths mostly occur
during the falling of the tide." [341] Every reader of the inimitable
Dickens will be reminded here of the death of poor old Barkis.
"'He's a-going out with the tide,' said Mr. Peggotty to me, behind his
hand.
"My eyes were dim, and so were Mr. Peggotty's; but I repeated in a
whisper, 'With the tide?'
"'People can't die, along the coast,' said Mr. Peggotty, 'except when
the tide's pretty nigh out. They can't be born, unless it's pretty nigh
in-not properly born, till flood. He's a-going out with the tide. It's
ebb at half-arter three, slack water half an hour. If he lives till it
turns, he'll hold his own till past the flood, and go out with the next
tide.'
"'He's coming to himself,' said Peggotty.
"Mr. Peggotty touched me, and whispered with much awe and
reverence, 'They are both a-going out fast.'
"He now opened his eyes.
"I was on the point of asking him if he knew me, when he tried to
stretch out his arm, and said to me distinctly, with a pleasant
smile,--
"'Barkis is willin'.'
"And, it being low water, he went out with the tide." [342]
That the rise and fall of our tides twice a day, with spring and neap
tides twice in the lunar month, are the effect of the combined action
of the sun and moon, is never called in question. The water under
the moon is drawn up from the earth, and the earth is drawn from
the water on the opposite side, the consequence of which is two high
tides in the two hemispheres at the same hour. The rotation of the
earth bringing the same point of the ocean twice under the moon's
meridian, once under the upper meridian and once under the lower,
each hemisphere has two high tides in the course of the day. The
spring tide is caused by the attractive force of the sun and moon
acting in conjunction, or in a straight line; and the neap tide is
caused by the moon being in quadrature, or when the sun and moon
are at right angles to each other. They counteract each other's
influence, and our tides arc therefore low. So much is science; but
the connection of ebb and flow with life and death is superstition.