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„people from attending Mass on Sunday morning; the woman because she made but- 
„ter on that day. A similar tale is told in Swabia and in Marken. Fischart says that 
„there ris to be seen in the moon a mannikin who stdle wood”’...... 
„At the time when wishing was of avail, say the North Frisians, a man, one 
„Christmas eve, stole cabbages from his neighbour's garden. When just in the act 
vof walking off with his load, he was perceived by the people, who conjured him up 
pinto the moon. There he stands in the full moon to be seen by every body, bearing 
„his load of cabbages to all eternity. Every Christmas eve he is said to turn round 
„once. Others say that he stole willow bows, which he must bear for ever.” 
„In Silt, the story goes that he was a sheep-stealer, who enticed sheep to him 
„with a bundle of cabbages, until, as an everlasting warning to others, he was placed 
„in the moon, where he constantly holds in his hand a bundle of these vegetables.” 
„The Dutch household myth is, that the unhappy man was caught stealing 
„vegetables. .... Chaucer, in the „Testament of Cresside’’, adverts to the man in the 
„moon, and attributes to him the same idea of heft. Of lady Cynthia, or the moon, 
„he says: 
„Her gite was gray and full of spottis blake, 
„And on her brest a chorle painted ful even, 
„Bering a bush of thornis on his backe, 
„Whiche for his theft might clime so ner the heaven”. 
„Alexander Necham, or Nequam, a writer of the twelfth century, in commenting on 
„the dispersed shadows in the moon, thus alludes to the vulgar belief : — / Nonne novisti 
„quid vulgus vocet rusticum in luna portantem spinas? Unde quidam vulgariter loquens ait : 
„Rusticus in Luuna, 
„Quem sarcina deprimit una, 
„Monstrat per opinas 
„Nulli prodesse rapinas , 
„which may be translated thus: „Do you know what they call the rustic in the 
„moon, who carries the faggot of stieks? So that one vulgarly speaking says :— 
„See the rustic in the Moon, 
„How his bundle weighs him down; 
„Thus his sticks the truth reveal: 
„It never profits man to steal.” 
; . „Hebel, in his charming poem on the Man in the Moon 
„in eh A Gedichte'’, makes him both ef and Sabbath-breaker. . . . The 
„Norse superstition attributed teft to the moon and the vulgar soon began to 
„believe, that the figure they saw in the moon was the thief.” 
Alvorens nu op het Chineesche Vrouwtje in de Maan terug te komen, zij 
nog in het voorbijgaan opgemerkt, dat de plaatsing van een vrouw in de schijf der 
Maan zeer waarschijnlijk mede het gevolg is van het oude ingewortelde begrip, 
hetwelk het volk immer in de Maan een godin, een vrouwelijk wezen deed zien. 

