LUNAR LORE AND PORTRAITURE. 511 



LUl^AE LOEE AXD POKTEAITUKE. 



By F. E. FEYATT. 



FROM the remotest periods of which we have quoted or written 

 records, the moon has been an object of adoring and speculative 

 contemplation. As the babe in the cradle, crowing and smiling, 

 stretches out its tiny hands to grasp the shining flame of the distant 

 candle, so the infant races of the world gazed at the radiant orb above 

 them, seeking to grasp and penetrate its mystic beauties. 



Nor is it to be marveled at, when we consider that this planet was 

 the most brilliant and changeable, as well as the nearest and apparent- 

 ly largest celestial body that presented itself to their nightly view, 

 and that in the clear, exquisite ether of Arabian skies, and the calm 

 nights of India and Egypt, it shone among the heavenly host with a 

 luster unknown to dwellers in the crowded cities of a northern clime. 



But the children of these tropic lands did something more than 

 gaze, speculate, and admire : with supreme patience they reared lofty 

 towers and grand pyramids, and invented instruments which have led 

 up step by step to the transit instrument, the micrometer, and the 

 telescope of to-day. A college of astronomy was founded by the 

 priesthood of Egypt, the worship of the moon growing out of their 

 frequent use of her pictured or carved image in making their meteoro- 

 logical announcements to the people ; as, for instance, when the Kile 

 was about to overflow, warning heralds were sent through the streets 

 bearing aloft the familiar symbols of the river goddess, and a gilded 

 figure of the moon in the phase it would present at the date of the ex- 

 pected rising. 



In the course of time, the signification was forgotten, the sjrmbol 

 was worshiped, and finally what it represented deified. The moon no 

 longer appeared to the unlettered populace as merely a brilliant lamp 

 suspended from a revolving dome, and shining until extinguished by 

 the waters of the ocean, but now was looked upon with awe as a 

 region of sublime mysteries. 



This veneration of the moon gradually spread with population to 

 all parts of the world. We have records of ancient Chinese ceremo- 

 nials ; relics found among Druidical remains in AYestern Europe ; ac- 

 counts of astronomical picture-writings of a religious character, and 

 lunar calendars of gold, silver, and stone, discovered in ancient temple- 

 ruins in Mexico, Central and South America. 



Among the buildings devoted to lunar worship may be mentioned 

 the wonderful Temple of Diana at Ephesus, built at the combined ex- 

 pense of the nations of Asia, and the magnificent mansion of the moon 

 adjoining the Temple of the Sun in ancient Cuzco ; this building was 

 in form a pyramidal pavilion with doors and inclosures completely 



