268 OF METEOROLOGICAL CHAP. 10. 



/ prithee good Moon, come tell to me 

 This Night who my husband shall he." 



Aubrey, in his Miscellanies, actually declares 

 that he knew two maids who sang this, and then 

 going to bed dreamed of the two men that they 

 respectively married afterwards. 



A popular song, in the Scottish dialect, of 

 the date of King James, or earlier, represents 

 the seeing what is called the New Moon in the 

 Old Moon's horns as a very unlucky omen. 



Not only the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and 

 Romans made sacrifices at the time of the 

 nascent Moon, and had numerous superstitions 

 respecting the Moon in general, but also the 

 Druids, and all the early Northern Nations did 

 similar things, and entertained similar opinions, 

 which shows that they must have been founded 

 on some general facts ; and I believe one oi 

 them to be the remarkable influence of certain 

 states of atmosphere occurring about the time 

 of the New and Full Moon on the human 

 nervous system, exciting thereby a disposition 

 to irritation or to melancholy, which made 

 people at those times ascribe misfortunes to 

 lunar influence.* 



* See my Atmospheric and Periodical Diseases, London, 

 1817- For numerous superstitions relating to the Moon, see 

 Brund's Popular Antiquities, by Ellis, 2 vols. 4to. 



