66 Hutton Webster 



most auspicious season for beginning any enterprise.-* A like 

 superstition was that of the Scottish Highlanders, to whom 

 the moon in her increase, full growth, and wane were " the 

 emblems of a rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. At the 

 last period of her revolution they carefully avoid to engage in any 

 business of importance; but the first and middle they seize with 

 avidity, presaging the most auspicious issue of their under- 

 takings."-^ 



Eclipses of the moon are sometimes considered unfavorable 

 for work and may also be accompanied by fasting. The time 

 of such unnatural darkness is considered to be particularly peril- 

 ous, when it is wise to avoid not only every sort of activity but 

 also the consumption of food tainted with the infection of 

 material evil or danger. When the Todas know that an eclipse 

 is about to occur they abstain from food ; when it is over they 

 have a feast and eat a special food prepared on all ceremonial 

 occasions.-^ In northern India, the time of a lunar eclipse is 

 considered most unlucky for the commencement of any business ' 

 of importance.^'^ Among the Jews there are many who abstain 

 from food on the day of an eclipse of the moon, which they 

 regard as an evil omen.-^ An English antiquarian of the seven- 

 teenth century is authority for the injunction not to undertake 

 any important business during an eclipse.^^ 



Among various peoples it is thought that during the period of 

 her invisibility the moon descends to the underworld. Such 



'* Germania, ii. The well-known rule of the Spartans which forbade 

 them to lead out their armies before the full moon (Herodotus, vi. io6; 

 Pausanias, i. 28, 4) was a related though not a precisel.v similar super- 

 stition. 



-^ Frazer, op. cit., p. 369; citing (Sir) John Sinclair's Statistical Account 

 of Scotland, xii. 457. 



^Rivers, op. cit., 592, 580. 



^ W. Crooke, Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India^ West- 

 minster, 1896, i. 23. 



"*J. Buxtorf, Synagoga Jndaica, Basileae, 1680, p. 477; cited by Wester- 

 marck. Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, ii. 310. 



^John Aubrey, Remaines of Gcntilisme and Jtidaisme, edited by J. 

 Britten, London, 1881, p. 85. 



66 



