have no trace of these observations. "It is obvious," writes Amos, "that such passages would be the most likely to be struck out by persons desirous of publishing a version of the proceedings which might diffuse an opinion among the public that one of the wickedest of men had been condemned after one of the fairest of trials and by one of the justest of prosecutions."

We have now to deal with the strange conduct of the King throughout this affair. What was the nature of the secret he feared Somerset might reveal? Why should orders have been given by the Lieutenant of the Tower to silence the prisoner and drag him away did he say a word against the King? We learn that James was so nervous and restless throughout the day on which the favourite was tried, that he sent to every boat he saw landing at the bridge, and cursed all who came without tidings. He refused all food. What was the occasion of this anxiety? One reason has been given which appears to answer the question more conclusively than other guesses. It has been suggested that the King himself had a share in the murder of Overbury. We know that James had a "rooted hatred " towards the knight; that he had been a co-operating party in the persecution; that he had enjoined the Privy Council to send Overbury to the Tower, and that he had turned a deaf ear to all petitions from the prisoner for release. He may have been cognisant of the plot of the Countess to poison Overbury, though unknown to her, and may have employed her guilt to screen his own purposes. We know that his own physician had attended upon Overbury during the latter part of his confinement, that this doctor was never called as a witness, and that the prescriptions he made out for the prisoner were never produced. We know that when foul work had been suspected, the King was among the busiest, the better to conceal his own agents, in prosecuting those accused of poisoning Overbury. We know that the proceedings against the Countess of Somerset were far from harsh, and that, in spite of the royal oath to the contrary, she received a full pardon. We know that the King used all his arguments to force the Earl of Somerset to plead guilty and to throw himself upon the mercy of the Crown, when he would have nothing more to fear. If Lord and Lady Somerset were guilty, and the King not implicated in the matter, what is the meaning of those communications between James and Carr when the latter was in the Tower? What is the meaning, in the face of the solemn promise to Coke, of a full pardon being granted to the guilty couple? But if the King had given instructions, independently of and unknown to Lady Somerset, to make an end of

1 State Papers, Domestic, May 31, 1616.

Overbury, nothing is more probable than that the favourite, at that time the bosom friend of the Crown, would have been informed of the design. Acquainted with this plot within a plot, Somerset on the day of his trial might have disclosed matters which would have caused a far bolder man than James to tremble. It is not surprising, therefore, if the surmise be correct, that the King was terribly nervous throughout the hours the favourite was before the

Nor is there anything in the life of James to render this suspicion unjustifiable. The first Stuart on the English throne was a true son of the vicious beauty, his mother. He was a hard, cruel, weak, degraded creature. In the opinion of several of his sober. contemporaries, he was addicted to heathenish practices. There were dark stories about his having poisoned his own son, the popular Prince Henry. He immured Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower, under the harshest restrictions. He proved himself utterly destitute of feeling in his conduct towards his kinswoman, the ill-fated Arabella Stuart. A career thus sullied is capable of any crime; and when suspicion points the finger, and raises its accusing voice, saying, "Thou art the man," posterity cannot be considered hasty or vindictive in giving credence to the charge.

After an imprisonment of some years in the Tower, a full pardon was granted to the Earl and Countess of Somerset. The guilty beauty and the exiled favourite passed the remainder of their life in seclusion, and it is said in mutual estrangement. One daughter was born to them, the Lady Anne, who afterwards became the mother of that Lord William Russell who, endowed with virtues his grandparents never possessed, met the fate from which they had been spared.

ALEX. CHARLES EWALD.

1 State Papers, Domestic, Jan. 17, 1622.

THE MOON AND ITS FOLK-LORE.

A

N interesting relic of a primeval superstition of the Aryan race survives in the fanciful conception that the lunar spots are not meaningless specks, but representations of human beings. Everyone, says Mr. Baring-Gould,' knows that the moon is inhabited by a man with a bundle of sticks on his back, who has been exiled thither for many centuries, and who is so far off that he is beyond the reach of death. Dante calls him Cain; Chaucer speaks of him as undergoing punishment up there for theft, and gives him a thorn-bush to carry; whereas Shakespeare,2 whilst assigning to him the thorn-load, by way of compensation allows him a dog for his companion. From general account, however, his offence seems not to have been stealing, but Sabbath-breaking—an idea derived from the Old Testament. Like the man mentioned in the Book of Numbers, he was caught gathering sticks on a Sunday, and for this act of disobedience, and as an example to mankind, was condemned to reside for ever in the moon, with his bundle on his back. A further legend identifies him with the figure of Isaac in the act of carrying a bundle of sticks for his sacrifice; while the Jews have a Talmudical story that Jacob is in the moon, and they believe that his face is occasionally visible. This belief in the moon-man is found in most countries, and under a variety of forms. Thus the Swedish peasantry explain the lunar spots as representing a boy and girl bearing a pail of water between them, whom the moon once kidnapped and carried up to heaven-a legend existing also in Icelandic mythology. According to one German tale, a man and a woman stand in the moon-the man, because he strewed brambles and thorns on the church path, so as to hinder people from attending mass on Sunday morning; the woman, because she made butter on that day. The woman carries her butter-tub, and the man his bundle of thorns.3 The Dutch myth is that the unhappy man was caught stealing vegetables. The natives of Ceylon,

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 1877, 191.

Fiske's Myths and Myth-makers, 1873, 27. Midsummer Night's Dream, act v. sc. I; Tempest, act ii. sc. 2.

See Thorpe's Northern Mythology, iii. 57.

VOL. CCXLVII, NO. 1796.

N

instead of a man, have placed a hare in the moon, and it is reported to have got there in the following manner1:-Their great deity Buddha, when a hermit on earth, lost himself one day in a forest. After wandering about in great distress, he met a hare, who thus addressed him-"It is in my power to extricate you from your difficulty; take the path on your left hand, and it will lead you out of the forest." "I am greatly obliged to you," said Buddha, "but unfortunately I am very poor and very hungry, and have nothing to offer you in reward for your kindness." "If you are hungry," returned the hare, "I am again at your service. Make a fire, kill me, roast me, and eat me." Buddha made the fire, and the hare at once jumped into it, where he has remained ever since. The Chinese represent the moon by a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar. Their mythological moon Jut-ho is figured by a beautiful young woman with a double sphere behind her head and a rabbit at her feet. The period of this animal's gestation is thirty days, which, Douce suggests, may typify the moon's revolution round the earth. If the nursery rhyme is to be credited, the man in the moon once visited this earth," and took a fancy to some pease-porridge, which he was in such a hurry to devour that he scalded his mouth :

The man in the moon

Came tumbling down,

And asked his way to Norwich;

but whether he ever reached his destination we are not told. According to the classic tale,3 the figure in the moon is probably Endymion, beloved of Selene. The Egyptian representations of the moon, with a figure in the disk, represent the little Horus in the womb of his mother Isis. Plutarch tells us Sibylla is placed in the moon; and Clemens Alexandrinus quotes Serapion in proof of the same notion. Many other myths of a similar nature are associated with the moon, most of which attribute to it animate life.4 Thus, an Australian legend says that originally the moon was a native cat, who fell in love with someone else's wife, and was driven away to wander ever since. Among the Esquimaux, the sun is a maiden and the moon is her brother; and the Khasias of the Himalaya say that the moon falls every month in love with his

1 Douce's Illustrations of Shakespeare, 1839, 10.

2 Halliwell's Popular Rhymes.

Baring-Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, p. 199.

See Clodd's Childhood of Religions, 1875, 87.

5 Tylor's Primitive Culture, 1873, i. 354; Stanbridge, "Abor of Australia," in Trans. Eth. Soc. i. 301.

mother-in-law, who throws ashes in his face, whence his spots.' The tribes of the Malayan Peninsula believe that the moon is a woman, and the stars are her children; whereas in South America there is a legend that the moon is a man, and the sun is his wife. As may be seen from the above illustrations, these nature-myths, while of animistic origin, differ in the sex they assign to the moon ; but at the same time they are interesting and curious survivals of the early philosophy which tried to account for, and explain, the mysteries of creation.

Another form of the many myths which invest the moon with animate life is seen in the moon worship-a superstition found in most countries from the earliest times, and even in our own country not wholly forgotten at the present day. The Jewish law ordered the man or woman to be stoned with stones till he died, who "hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun or moon, or any of the host of heaven." In Egyptian theology, too, the moon was regarded as a personal divinity of enormous sway; and in Aryan theology we find the moon the object of adoration. Among savage tribes it is still worshipped, and numerous omens are sought from its changes. Dr. Tylor tells us how the negro tribes welcome the new moon, and with what droll gestures the Guinea people greet it, flinging themselves about, and pretending to throw firebrands at it. In prehistoric times moon worship was practised in this country; and formerly, we know, too, how the moon was worshipped by the Britons in the form of a beautiful maid. In Europe 2 in the 15th century it was a matter of complaint that many were in the habit of paying obedience to the new moon with bended knee, or hat removed; and even nowadays, to quote the words of Dr. Johnson, "it has great influence in vulgar philosophy," some, in superstitious reverence, still raising their hat to it. According to Vallancey, the Irish, on seeing the new moon, immediately knelt down and repeated the Lord's Prayer, at the conclusion of which they exclaimed, "May thou leave us as safe as thou hast found us!" Even now they make the sign of the cross on themselves, and repeat the words, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen "-as by this act they imagine that they will obtain anything they may wish for. In days gone by, it was a common practice among the lower classes of this country to say when the moon was full, "It is a fine moon, God help her!" Various forms of moon worship survive in the divinations and super' J. D. Hooker, Himalayan Journals, ii. 276.

• Primitive Culture, ii. 302.

Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. v. 364.