S//lI/- Tnnn/'cfs and tJicir nistribntioii. 69 



l>ut that is still more sur[)i-isinL^ which 1 have read in 

 rUitaicli. — tliat the onion becomes ori-ecn and lloiirishinj^ 

 as the moon wastes a\va\-, and dries u[j a^ain while the 

 moon increases ; and this is the cause, sa\' the l'"i;^y|)tian 

 priests, why the Pelusians do not cat the oni(Mi : because 

 it alone of all potlierbs has its turns ot" diminishing^- and 

 increasing contrary to those of the moon." i Jolinstcn, ly. 

 cit., pp. 11(^-7)- Kirckringius, it is stated, "knew a yoimt.^ 

 gentlewoman whose beauty depended upon the lunar force ; 

 insomuch, that at full m(K)n she was plump and handsome, 

 but in the decrease of the planet so wan and ill-favoured, 

 that she was ashamed to go abroad, till the return of the 

 new moon gradually gave fulness to her face, and attrac- 

 tion to her charms. If this seems strange, it is incleed no 

 more than an influence of the same kind with that which 

 the moon has alwa}-s been observed to have upon shell- 

 fish, and some otlier living creatures." 1 le cjuotes Lucilius, 

 and the words of Manilius : 



" Si submersa fretis, concharum et carcere clausa, 

 Ad lun;e motum variant animalia cor])us." 

 '• This opinion," saws Johnston, ''continued to be for long 

 a part of the popular creed, and even so late as 1666 it 

 had in notiiing been impaired, for, in tlie ' IMiilosophical 

 Transactions' of that \-ear, travellers to India are solicited 

 to intiuire, ' whetlier those .shell-fishes that are in these 

 parts plump and in season at the full m(jon, and lean and 

 out of .season at the new, are found to iiave contrar\- con- 

 stitutions in the East Indies'— a nice (juestion, to whicii 

 the answer returned was, ' 1 find it so here, by experience 

 at Batavia, in oysters and crabs."' (^Johnston, r^/-. r//., p. 



