52 



♦ KNOWLEDGK ♦ 



[Jakuaey 2, 1888. 



rushes at nightfall.* In the " Midsummer Night's Dream " 

 the fairy queen says to the king : — 



These are the forgeries ot jealousj' ; 



And never, since the middie summer's spring, 



Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, 



By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, 



Or in the beached margent of the sea, 



To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind ; 



But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport. 



No night is now with hymn or carol blest : 



Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, 



Pale in her anger, washes all the air. 



That rheumatic diseases do abound ; 



And this same progeny ot evil come.s 



From our debate, from our dissension ; 



We are their parents and oiiginal. 



Among the Mexicans an eclipse of the moon is supposed 

 to be the moon devoured by a dragon. The Hindoos have 

 the same belief, and both nations continued to use the 

 expression long after they had discovered the true cause 

 of an eclipse. t Captain Beechman relates that one evening 

 when he was at supper with .some friends in the island of 

 Borneo, thev heard a great noise outside. " The natives 

 were yellinar, and clattering brass pans and gongs, and firing 

 off guns. When we inquired the reason of their excitement, 

 one of the natives pointed up to the heavens, and said, 

 ' Look there; see, the devil is eating up the moon 1 ' " 



Among the Chinese the belief exists that the moon during 

 an eclipse is being devoured by a hungry monster. In 

 order to frighten him away, and to save the moon from 

 total destruction, certain ceremonies are performed by the 

 Chinese mandarins, which form, in fact, part of their official 

 business. An instrument made of bamboo splints is beaten, 

 which makes a great noise, supjMsed to penetrate the very 

 temple of Heaven itself. Tapers are lighted at the begin- 

 ning of an eclipse, incense is burned, the mandarins prostrate 

 themselves on the ground, and the priests recite formulas, 

 all this Listing until the eclipse has passed off. We are 

 naively told that they are invariably successful in driving 

 away the hungry monster.J 



At one time in Canton the sky happened to be cloudy 

 during an eclipse, and we are told that the courtiers con- 

 gratulated the emperor that lie had been spared the pain 

 of seeing the sun devourerl. 



Among some of the American Indian tribes a belief exists 

 that the moon is hunted by huge dogs, catching and tearing 

 her till her soft light is reddened and put out by the blood 

 flowing from her wounds. 



" At a lunar eclipse the Orinoco Indians would work hard, 

 as they imagined the moon was veiling herself in anger at 

 their habitual lazine.ss." § 



It was customary among the Romans to take their 

 brazen pots and jsans and beat them together, making a 

 most unearthly noise, duriug an eclipse. They also lit 

 torches and firebrands, and carried them abotit with them, 

 hoping by these means to release the moon. The Mexicans 

 would make a great noise during the eclipse with musical 

 instruments, and would make their dogs howl, hoping the 

 moon would have pity on them because of their cries. The 

 Creeks did likewise, and they explained this strange custom 

 by saying that the big dog was swallowing the sun, and 

 they could prevent him from doing so by whipping the little 

 one.?. II 



The people of Tahiti were tilled with terror during an 



* "Fairy Tales: their Origin and Meaning." By John Thackray 

 Eunce, p. 131. 



I Grimm, " Teutonic Mythology," p. 707. 



J M.-ix MiiUer, " Chips from a German Workshop," vol. ii. p. 2G9. 

 § Harley, "Moon Lore," p. 161. 



II Ibid. p. 168. 



eclipse, and would go to the temple and pray for the 

 moon's release. They would offer presents to the god whom 

 they supposed to be swallowing the moon.* 



'The Sinalos fancied that a battle was taking place in the 

 moon, of great consequence to those on earth. The people 

 would encourage the moon by shouting and yelling, and 

 would shoot flights of arrows at her, so as to distract the 

 enemy.t 



In eclipses of the moon the Greenlanders carry boxes and 

 kettles to the roofs of their houses, and beat on them as 

 hard as they can. The Lithuanians think a demon is 

 attacking the chariot of the sun ; darkness comes, and 

 though the sun will be saved many times, yet it must be 

 destroyed at the end of the world. Among the Moors the 

 people ru'i about as if mad during an eclipse, firing their 

 rifles, so as to frighten the monster, who, they suppose, 

 wishes to devour the orb of day. The women bang copper 

 vessels together, making a noise to be heard at a very great 

 distance.t 



TRICKS OF MEMORY. 



EMOPiY, which differs so gi-eatly among in- 

 dividual men, varies also in such marked 

 degree in the same person at different times 

 that we are all intei'ested in the inquiry how 

 far memory is a measure of mental strength. 

 In childhood and boyhood we find memory 

 occupying .so high a position among mental 

 qualities, that the idea grows up with most 

 of us that he who has the best memory has also most 

 talent, if even a remarkable memory be not regarded as of 

 itself proving absolute genius. At least this is so inmost 

 of our schools, where the boy who remembers his lessons 

 best takes highest position, not he who best understands 

 them. 



I learned very early that memory and mental power, 

 though they may be associated together, are yet very 

 different things. I valued my memory, which had often 

 stood me in good stead in examinations, the only tests with 

 which boyhood is apt to be acquainted ; but I valued more 

 the power of understanding and enjoying the reasoning of 

 dear old Euclid, the one geometrician with whom, in those 

 days, English school lads could become acquainted. Soon 

 after I had left school — and when I was a freshman at 

 college — I made the acquaintance of a young man of about 

 my own age who possessed a most marvellous memory, 

 while he also showed most marvellous mental density. He 

 had occasion to pass examinations in Euclid, and one would 

 have said that he would have been singularly successful in 

 these examinations, for though he had only read through 

 our college Euclid once, he could recite or write out the 

 whole of it. Or, if preferred, he could begin at any point 

 where one might start him and reproduce any quantity 

 verbatim et literatim — atq^ie punctuatim, so far as that was 

 concerned. But not only was he utterly unable to under- 

 stand a word of it all — he had not even brains enough to 

 keep his real ignorance of Euclid to himself. He was 

 always forgetting the good old rule ne quid nimis ; and as 

 he did not know where to stop in his marvellous recita- 

 tions, the examiners naturally came to the conclusion, per- 

 fectly justified by the facts, that though be knew his Euclid 

 by heart he knew nothing about geometry. His knowledge 

 was akin to that of one who should repeat by rote a 

 number of Greek or Hebrew words the meaning of which 

 was unknown to him ; or like that of a tutor I once had, 



* Harley, "Moon Lore," p. 173. 



t Grim'in's " Teutonic Mythology," p. 



t Ibid. p. 173. 

 707. 



