(M114) In the preceding chapter some evidence was adduced of the
sympathetic influence which the waxing or waning moon is popularly
supposed to exert on growth, especially on the growth of vegetation. But
the doctrine of lunar sympathy does not stop there; it is applied also to
the affairs of man, and various customs and rules have been deduced from
it which aim at the amelioration and even the indefinite extension of
human life. To illustrate this application of the popular theory at length
would be out of place here, but a few cases may be mentioned by way of
specimen.
(M115) The natural fact on which all the customs in question seem to rest
is the apparent monthly increase and decrease of the moon. From this
observation men have inferred that all things simultaneously wax or wane
in sympathy with it.(371) Thus the Mentras or Mantras of the Malay
Peninsula have a tradition that in the beginning men did not die but grew
thin with the waning of the moon, and waxed fat as she neared the
full.(372) Of the Scottish Highlanders we are told that “the moon in her
increase, full growth, and in her wane are with them the emblems of a
rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. At the last period of her
revolution they carefully avoid to engage in any business of importance;
but the first and middle they seize with avidity, presaging the most
auspicious issue to their undertakings.”(373) Similarly in some parts of
Germany it is commonly believed that whatever is undertaken when the moon
is on the increase succeeds well, and that the full moon brings everything
to perfection; whereas business undertaken in the wane of the moon is
doomed to failure.(374) This German belief has come down, as we might have
anticipated, from barbaric times; for Tacitus tells us that the Germans
considered the new or the full moon the most auspicious time for
business;(375) and Caesar informs us that the Germans despaired of victory
if they joined battle before the new moon.(376) The Spartans seem to have
been of the same opinion, for it was a rule with them never to march out
to war except when the moon was full. The rule prevented them from sending
troops in time to fight the Persians at Marathon,(377) and but for
Athenian valour this paltry superstition might have turned the scale of
battle and decided the destiny of Greece, if not of Europe, for centuries.
The Athenians themselves paid dear for a similar scruple: an eclipse of
the moon cost them the loss of a gallant fleet and army before Syracuse,
and practically sealed the fate of Athens, for she never recovered from
the blow.(378) So heavy is the sacrifice which superstition demands of its
votaries. In this respect the Greeks were on a level with the negroes of
the Sudan, among whom, if a march has been decided upon during the last
quarter of the moon, the departure is always deferred until the first day
of the new moon. No chief would dare to undertake an expedition and lead
out his warriors before the appearance of the crescent. Merchants and
private persons observe the same rule on their journeys.(379) In like
manner the Mandingoes of Senegambia pay great attention to the changes of
the moon, and think it very unlucky to begin a journey or any other work
of consequence in the last quarter.(380)
It is especially the appearance of the new moon, with its promise of
growth and increase, which is greeted with ceremonies intended to renew
and invigorate, by means of sympathetic magic, the life of man. Observers,
ignorant of savage superstition, have commonly misinterpreted such customs
as worship or adoration paid to the moon. In point of fact the ceremonies
of new moon are probably in many cases rather magical than religious. The
Indians of the Ucayali River in Peru hail the appearance of the new moon
with great joy. They make long speeches to her, accompanied with vehement
gesticulations, imploring her protection and begging that she will be so
good as to invigorate their bodies.(381) On the day when the new moon
first appeared, it was a custom with the Indians of San Juan Capistrano,
in California, to call together all the young men for the purpose of its
celebration. “_Correr la luna!_” shouted one of the old men, “Come, my
boys, the moon! the moon!” Immediately the young men began to run about in
a disorderly fashion as if they were distracted, while the old men danced
in a circle, saying, “As the moon dieth, and cometh to life again, so we
also having to die will again live.”(382) An old traveller tells us that
at the appearance of every new moon the negroes of the Congo clapped their
hands and cried out, sometimes falling on their knees, “So may I renew my
life as thou art renewed.” But if the sky happened to be clouded, they did
nothing, alleging that the planet had lost its virtue.(383) A somewhat
similar custom prevails among the Ovambo of South-Western Africa. On the
first moonlight night of the new moon, young and old, their bodies smeared
with white earth, perhaps in imitation of the planet’s silvery light,
dance to the moon and address to it wishes which they feel sure will be
granted.(384) We may conjecture that among these wishes is a prayer for a
renewal of life. When a Masai sees the new moon he throws a twig or stone
at it with his left hand, and says, “Give me long life,” or “Give me
strength”; and when a pregnant woman sees the new moon she milks some milk
into a small gourd, which she covers with green grass. Then she pours the
milk away in the direction of the moon and says, “Moon, give me my child
safely.”(385) Among the Wagogo of German East Africa, at sight of the new
moon some people break a stick in pieces, spit on the pieces, and throw
them towards the moon, saying, “Let all illness go to the west, where the
sun sets.”(386) Among the Boloki of the Upper Congo there is much shouting
and gesticulation on the appearance of a new moon. Those who have enjoyed
good health pray that it may be continued, and those who have been sick
ascribe their illness to the coming of the luminary and beg her to take
away bad health and give them good health instead.(387) The Esthonians
think that all the misfortunes which might befall a man in the course of a
month may be forestalled and shifted to the moon, if a man will only say
to the new moon, “Good morrow, new moon. I must grow young, you must grow
old. My eyes must grow bright, yours must grow dark. I must grow light as
a bird, you must grow heavy as iron.”(388) On the fifteenth day of the
moon, that is, at the time when the luminary has begun to wane, the
Coreans take round pieces of paper, either red or white, which represent
the moon, and having fixed them perpendicularly on split sticks they place
them on the tops of the houses. Then persons who have been forewarned by
fortune-tellers of impending evil pray to the moon to remove it from
them.(389)
(M116) In India people attempt to absorb the vital influence of the moon
by drinking water in which the luminary is reflected. Thus the Mohammedans
of Oude fill a silver basin with water and hold it so that the orb of the
full moon is mirrored in it. The person to be benefited must look
steadfastly at the moon in the basin, then shut his eyes and drink the
water at one gulp. Doctors recommend the draught as a remedy for nervous
disorders and palpitation of the heart. Somewhat similar customs prevail
among the Hindoos of Northern India. At the full moon of the month of Kuar
(September-October) people lay out food on the house-tops, and when it has
absorbed the rays of the moon they distribute it among their relations,
who are supposed to lengthen their life by eating of the food which has
thus been saturated with moonshine. Patients are often made to look at the
moon reflected in melted butter, oil, or milk as a cure for leprosy and
the like diseases.(390)
(M117) Naturally enough the genial influence of moonshine is often
supposed to be particularly beneficial to children; for will not the
waxing moon help them to wax in strength and stature? Hence in the island
of Kiriwina, one of the Trobriands Group to the east of New Guinea, a
mother always lifts up or presents her child to the first full moon after
its birth in order that it may grow fast and talk soon.(391) So among the
Baganda of Central Africa it was customary for each mother to take her
child out at the first new moon after its birth, and to point out the moon
to the infant; this was thought to make the child grow healthy and
strong.(392) Among the Thonga of South Africa the presentation of the baby
to the moon does not take place until the mother has resumed her monthly
periods, which usually happens in the third month after the birth. When
the new moon appears, the mother takes a torch or a burning brand from the
fire and goes to the ash-heap behind the hut. She is followed by the
grandmother carrying the child. At the ash-heap the mother throws the
burning stick towards the moon, while the grandmother tosses the baby into
the air, saying, “This is your moon!” The child squalls and rolls over on
the ash-heap. Then the mother snatches up the infant and nurses it; so
they go home.(393)
(M118) The Guarayos Indians, who inhabit the gloomy tropical forests of
Eastern Bolivia, lift up their children in the air at new moon in order
that they may grow.(394) Among the Apinagos Indians, on the Tocantins
River in Brazil, the French traveller Castelnau witnessed a remarkable
dance by moonlight. The Indians danced in two long ranks which faced each
other, the women on one side, the men on the other. Between the two ranks
of dancers blazed a great fire. The men were painted in brilliant colours,
and for the most part wore white or red skull-caps made of maize-flour and
resin. Their dancing was very monotonous and consisted of a jerky movement
of the body, while the dancer advanced first one leg and then the other.
This dance they accompanied with a melancholy song, striking the ground
with their weapons. Opposite them the women, naked and unpainted, stood in
a single rank, their bodies bent slightly forward, their knees pressed
together, their arms swinging in measured time, now forward, now backward,
so as to join hands. A remarkable figure in the dance was a personage
painted scarlet all over, who held in his hand a rattle composed of a
gourd full of pebbles. From time to time he leaped across the great fire
which burned between the men and the women. Then he would run rapidly in
front of the women, stopping now and then before one or other and
performing a series of strange gambols, while he shook his rattle
violently. Sometimes he would sink with one knee to the ground, and then
suddenly throw himself backward. Altogether the agility and endurance
which he displayed were remarkable. This dance lasted for hours. When a
woman was tired out she withdrew, and her place was taken by another; but
the same men danced the monotonous dance all night. Towards midnight the
moon attained the zenith and flooded the scene with her bright rays. A
change now took place in the dance. A long line of men and women advanced
to the fire between the ranks of the dancers. Each of them held one end of
a hammock in which lay a new-born infant, whose squalls could be heard.
These babes were now to be presented by their parents to the moon. On
reaching the end of the line each couple swung the hammock, accompanying
the movement by a chant, which all the Indians sang in chorus. The song
seemed to consist of three words, repeated over and over again. Soon a
shrill voice was heard, and a hideous old hag, like a skeleton, appeared
with her arms raised above her head. She went round and round the assembly
several times, then disappeared in silence. While she was present, the
scarlet dancer with the rattle bounded about more furiously than ever,
stopping only for a moment while he passed in front of the line of women.
His body was contracted and bent towards them, and described an undulatory
movement like that of a worm writhing. He shook his rattle violently, as
if he would fain kindle in the women the fire which burned in himself.
Then rising abruptly he would resume his wild career. During this time the
loud voice of an orator was heard from the village repeating a curious
name without cessation. Then the speaker approached slowly, carrying on
his back some gorgeous bunches of brilliant feathers and under his arm a
stone axe. Behind him walked a young woman bearing an infant in a loose
girdle at her waist; the child was wrapped in a mat, which protected it
against the chill night air. The couple paced slowly for a minute or two,
and then vanished without speaking a word. At the same moment the curious
name which the orator had shouted was taken up by the whole assembly and
repeated by them again and again. This scene in its turn lasted a long
time, but ceased suddenly with the setting of the moon. The French
traveller who witnessed it fell asleep, and when he awoke all was calm
once more: there was nothing to recall the infernal dances of the
night.(395)
(M119) In explanation of these dances Castelnau merely observes that the
Apinagos, like many other South American Indians, pay a superstitious
respect to the moon. We may suppose that the ceremonious presentation of
the infants to the moon was intended to ensure their life and growth. The
names solemnly chanted by the whole assembly were probably those which the
parents publicly bestowed on their children. As to the scarlet dancer who
leaped across the fire, we may conjecture that he personated the moon, and
that his strange antics in front of the women were designed to impart to
them the fertilizing virtue of the luminary, and perhaps to facilitate
their delivery.
(M120) Among the Baganda of Central Africa there is general rejoicing when
the new moon appears, and no work is done for seven days. When the
crescent is first visible at evening, mothers take out their babies and
hold them at arms’ length, saying, “I want my child to keep in health till
the moon wanes.” At the same time a ceremony is performed which may be
intended to ensure the king’s life and health throughout the ensuing
month. It is a custom with the Baganda to preserve the king’s navel-string
with great care during his life. The precious object is called the “Twin”
of the king, as if it were his double; and the ghost of the royal
afterbirth is believed to be attached to it. Enclosed in a pot, which is
wrapt in bark cloths, the navel-string is kept in a temple specially built
for it near the king’s enclosure, and a great minister of state acts as
its guardian and priest. Every new moon, at evening, he carries it in
state, wrapped in bark cloths, to the king, who takes it into his hands,
examines it, and returns it to the minister. The keeper of the
navel-string then goes back with it to the house and sets it in the
doorway, where it remains all night. Next morning it is taken from its
wrappings and again placed in the doorway until the evening, when it is
once more swathed in bark cloths and restored to its usual place.(396)
Apparently the navel-string is conceived as a vital portion, a sort of
external soul, of the king; and the attentions bestowed on it at the new
moon may be supposed to refresh and invigorate it, thereby refreshing and
invigorating the king’s life.
(M121) The Armenians appear to think that the moon exercises a baleful
influence on little children. To avert that influence a mother will show
the moon to her child and say, “Thine uncle, thine uncle.” For the same
purpose the father and mother will mount to the roof of the house at new
moon on a Wednesday or Friday. The father then puts the child on a shovel
and gives it to the mother, saying, “If it is thine, take it to thee. But
if it is mine, rear it and give it to me back.” The mother then takes the
child and the shovel, and returns them to the father in like manner.(397)
A similar opinion as to the noxious influence of moonshine on children was
apparently held by the ancient Greeks; for Greek nurses took great care
never to show their infants to the moon.(398) Some Brazilian Indians in
like manner guard babies against the moon, believing that it would make
them ill. Immediately after delivery mothers will hide themselves and
their infants in the thickest parts of the forest in order that the
moonlight may not fall on them.(399) It would be easy to understand why
the waning moon should be deemed injurious to children; they might be
supposed to peak and pine with its dwindling light. Thus in Angus it is
thought that if a child be weaned during the waning of the moon, it will
decay all the time that the moon continues to wane.(400) But it is less
easy to see why the same deleterious influence on children should be
ascribed to moonlight in general.
(M122) There are many other ways in which people have sought to turn lunar
sympathy to practical account. Clearly the increase of the moon is the
time to increase your goods, and the decrease of the moon is the time to
diminish your ills. Acting on this imaginary law of nature many persons in
Europe show their money to the new moon or turn it in their pockets at
that season, in the belief that the money will grow with the growth of the
planet; sometimes, by way of additional precaution, they spit on the coin
at the same time.(401) “Both Christians and Moslems in Syria turn their
silver money in their pockets at the new moon for luck; and two persons
meeting under the new moon will each take out a silver coin and embrace,
saying, ‘May you begin and end; and may it be a good month to us.’ ”(402)
Conversely the waning of the moon is the most natural time to get rid of
bodily ailments. In Brittany they think that warts vary with the phases of
the moon, growing as it waxes and vanishing away as it wanes.(403)
Accordingly, they say in Germany that if you would rid yourself of warts
you should treat them when the moon is on the decrease.(404) And a German
cure for toothache, earache, headache, and so forth, is to look towards
the waning moon and say, “As the moon decreases, so may my pains decrease
also.”(405) However, some Germans reverse the rule. They say, for example,
that if you are afflicted with a wen, you should face the waxing moon, lay
your finger on the wen, and say thrice, “What I see waxes; what I touch,
let it vanish away.” After each of these two sentences you should cross
yourself thrice. Then go home without speaking to any one, and repeat
three paternosters behind the kitchen door.(406) The Huzuls of the
Carpathians recommend a somewhat similar, and no doubt equally
efficacious, cure for waterbrash. They say that at new moon the patient
should run thrice round the house and then say to the moon, “Moon, moon,
where wast thou?” “Behind the mountain.” “What hast thou eaten there?”
“Horse flesh.” “Why hast thou brought me nothing?” “Because I forgot.”
“May the waterbrash forget to burn me!”(407) Thus a curative virtue
appears to be attributed by some people to the waning and by others to the
waxing moon. There is perhaps just as much, or as little, to be said for
the one attribution as for the other.