MOON, SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING THE. Brand, in his ' Popular Antiquities,' gives a long list of lunar superstitions.
It was formerly conceived that if hogs were killed when the moon was inereaaing, the bacon would prove the better in boiling. (See the Iluzbandotan's Practice, or l'rognoeira(ion for Eder, 8vo., Lend., 1864.) Tosser, in his Five Hundred Points of Husbandry,' under February, says :— " Sews peasen and beans In the wane of the moon, Who /*well' them sooner, he aoweth too soon ; That they with the planet may rest and rise, And flourish with bearing most plentiful wise." In Decker's Match me in London,' net I., the king says, " My lord, doe you see this change th' moone I Sharp homes do threaten windy weather." Werenfels, In his ' Dissertation upon Superstition' (Trans]., 8vo., Lend., 1743), p. 6, speaking of a super:aide:Ls man, says, "lie will not emninit his seed to the mirth when the soil, but when the moon requires It. Ile will have hie hair cut when the moon is either in Leo, that his locks may stare like the lion's shag; or in Aries, that they may curl like a rion's horn. Whatever ho would have to grow, be sets about it when she is In her increase; but for what be would have made lea, he chusea her seam. When the moon la In Taurus, ho never can be persuaded to take physic, lest that animal, which chews its cud, should mako him cast tt up again. If at any time he has s mind to be in the horizon, and disappear when they are 90' from that boundary, or w hen the sun is overhead. We copy from Schroeter's Selesto topegraphische Fragmente' two representations of the spot Archimedes, the first when very near the dusk part, the second when far from it.
fink at rest, then when the ball moves towards a, it will endeavour to draw the needle towards the position o sr, and the needle will begin ta revel e In the same direction as the hall. Suppose that by the time the needle points to o w, the ball le at o 0, o c and o re being perpen. dipolar ; the ball then seta equally on both sides of the needle, and all acceleration of the rotation stops. When the ball arrives at 13, it in admitted into the presence of a prince, he will wait till the moon is in conjunction with the sun, fortis then the society of an inferior with a superior is salutary and successful."
Aubrey, in his ' Miscellanies,' says, " At the first appearance of the new moon after New Year's Day (some say any other new moon is as good), go out in the evening and stand over the spars of a gate or stile, looking on the moon, and say— All hail to thee, moon, all bail to thee, I prlth'ee, good moon, reveal to me This night who my husband (wife) shall be.
You must presently after go to bed. I knew two gentlewomen that did this when they were young maids, and they had dreams of those that married them." Dr. Jamieson has quoted these words as used in Scotland, in a different form.
Tacitus, in his Manners of the Ancient Germans,' observes that "they hold their meetings on certain days, either at the new or full moon ; for they consider these the most favourable times for entering on any business." Brand quotes Duchesne's 'History of England,' p. 18, where, speak ing of the Irish, he says, " Quand lie voyent la nouvelle lune, ils fief chissent lee genoux et rdeitent l'Oraison Dominicale, it la fin de laquelle ils disent Is haute voix, addressant lour percale vers elle, Laisse nous awed sins que to nous as trouvez ;'" which Vallancey confirms in his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicie; No. xiii., p. 91. " The vulgar Irish at this day retain an adoration to the new moon, crossing themselves, and saying' May thou leave ua as safe as thou halt found us.'" Park observed a similar practice in the interior of Africa among the Mandingoes.
The Man in the Moon, one of the most ancient and most popular of our superstitions, is supposed to have originated in the account given in the Book of Numbers, chap. xv., v. 32, &c., of a man who was punished with death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath-day. From allusions by Dante it would seem that the Italians in his day fancied that the man in the moon was Cain with a bundle of thorns (see the Inferno' xx, 125-6 ; Par. ii.) Most nations have their traditions on this subject ; Grimm in his' Deutsche Myth,' has collected a great many.