82 SMITH : EFFECT OF THE MOOn's PHASES OF TlfE 



among country people in England. It is quite likely that 

 the Indian belief may turn out as baseless as the English 

 one. 



Leaving the region of conjecture in which there are no certain 

 facts to guide us, we may turn to certain I'esults which have 

 been obtained whilst conducting experiments to test the native 

 belief. These experiments were conducted in such a manner 

 as to leave their interpretation somewhat doubtful. For 

 instance , the following result was obtained on the Nilgiris : 

 " Bamboos cut on dark nights and immediately soaked were 

 not attacked." Here we cannot tell whether the fact of 

 cutting them on dark nights had any part in producing the 

 immunity from attack, or whether the whole effect was due to 

 the subsequent soaking in water. Supposing that the fact of 

 cutting on a dark night had something to do with the effect, 

 some such explanation as the following may perhaps hold good. 

 A dark night is usually one of high humidity, and a moonlight 

 night is probably of lower humidity. This may especially be 

 the case in India, where humidity is often much lower at night 

 than in Ceylon. This being the case, the bamboos cut on dark 

 nights would probably be full of water when cut ; whereas those 

 cut on a bright night may have contained less. Hence the 

 mere fact of cutting on a dark night may be partially equi- 

 valent to the soaking in water, which has been found a fairly 

 good remedy against attacks. Mr. Stebbing states further 

 on that those felled on moonlight nights were more severelj^ 

 attacked than those felled on dark ones. No statement is 

 made as to whether these bamboos were soaked or not, but if 

 not the result shows that some difference does occur between 

 those felled on moonhght nights and those felled on dark ones. 

 The explanation I would apply to this case is the same as that 

 for the previous one. 



It is much easier to apply some rational explanation to cases 

 such as the above in which a difference is observed between 

 culms felled in the day and those during the night , or between 

 culms felled on dark and those on moonlight nights, than it is 

 to suggest a reason for the supposition that any difference 

 occurs between those cut in the ordinary way, which is, I 

 presume, in the daytime, at different times of the month. 



