62 Hutton VVchstcr 



IV. PERIODS OF ABSTINENCE CONNECTED WITH 

 LUNAR PHENOMENA 



lO. SUPERSTITIONS RELATING TO THE MOON 



There is good reason for believing that among many primitive 

 peoples the moon rather than the sun, the planets, or any of the 

 constellations, first excited the imagination and aroused feelings 

 of superstitious awe or religious veneration. The worship of 

 the moon is widespread ;^ and in various mythologies that lumi- 

 nary, often conceived as masculine, plays the most important 

 part among the heavenly bodies.^ "When challenged to defend 

 their peculiar religious system by the sun worshippers of the 

 sierra, the Indians of Pacasmayu were at no loss for arguments. 

 The moon, they contended, must necessarily be more powerful 

 than the sun, because the latter only shone by day, while the 

 former shone not only by night, but in the daytime also ; the 

 moon, moreover, sometimes eclipsed the sun, but the sun never 

 eclipsed the moon. When the moon disappeared in the interval 

 between two lunations, it was supposed that he had gone to the 

 other world to inflict punishment on the wicked."^ 



But there are other reasons which led early philosophers to 

 ascribe a special importance to the moon. Sometimes the lunar 

 rays are considered positively deleterious, especially for little 

 children. Greek nurses, for example, took special pains never to 

 show their charges to the moon.* Some Brazilian Indians believe 

 that the moon makes children ill. Immediately after delivery 

 mothers will hide themselves with their infants in the thickest 



^ For many illustrations of moon-worship among the Greeks see W. 

 H. Roscher, tjber Selene und Vcrivandtes, Leipzig, 1890, pp. i-ii; for 

 some illustrations from non-Hellenic peoples in antiquity, idem, 12-16, 

 and Nachtrdge, Leipzig, 1895, PP- i-iQ. 



^A. Reville, Lcs religions des pcuples non-civilises, Paris, 1883, ii. 226; 

 D. G. Brinton, Religions of Primitive Peoples, New York, 1897, pp. 139 

 sq.; E. J. Payne, History of the New World Called America. Oxford, 

 1892, i. 547 sqq.; Frazer, Adonis, Attis. Osiris^ 366 .^17. 



* Payne, op. cit., i. 550. 



^Plutarch, Otiaestioiies convivialcs, iv. 10, 3, 7; Frazer, op. cit., 376. 



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