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stitious rites still associated, here and there, with its changes, many of which are supposed to influence the affairs of daily life. Thus, the peasant considers it unlucky to have no piece of silver money in his pocket to turn for prosperity when he first sees the new moon. In Yorkshire, the only way of averting this ill-omen is at once to turn head over heels. "I have known persons," says Mr. Hunt,' speaking of Cornish superstitions, "whose attention has been called to a clear new moon, hesitate: 'Hey I seed her out-a'-doors afore?' If not, they will go into the open air, and, if possible, show the moon 'a piece of gold,' or at all events turn their money."

In Cornwall, too, the first money taken on market-day is frequently spit on for good luck; and if silver, kept for "luck money," to be shown to the next moon, and turned three times towards the person who shows it. Three wishes are made whilst showing the money, which the wisher turns three times from the moon towards himself. To see the new moon through glass is an indication that one will break glass of some kind before the month is out; and Mr. Henderson2 quotes the case of a maid-servant in the North of England who was in the habit of shutting her eyes when closing the shutters, for fear of accidentally catching a glimpse of the new moon through the window-pane. Mr. Rayson, also, in his notes in the East Anglian, says: "I have just been told by a lady, who has resided for some months with a Norfolk family at Kentish Town, that, when the new moon first appears, all the family (including the servants) are accustomed to hasten out of the house, in order that they may not see the new moon through glass, which is believed to be very unlucky. A respectable tradesman's wife, in my own village, gravely assured a lady, who visited her in her illness, that she knew she would have nothing but travail for a month to come, as she had unfortunately seen the new moon through a glass window. She added that she always dreaded such warnings, as her husband then was sure to spend most of his time at the public-house." On the other hand, various love omens and divinations are derived from the moon's phases: thus, in Berkshire and other counties, at the first appearance of a new moon, young women go into the fields, and, whilst looking up at it, repeat the following rhyme :

New moon, new moon, I hail thee!

By all the virtue in thy body,

Grant this night that I may see

He who my true love is to be.

1 Popular Romances of West of England, p. 429.
Folk-lore of Northern Counties, 1879, 114.

After this, they return home under an implicit conviction that, before the following morning, their future husbands will appear to them in their dreams. There are several varieties of this superstition-one consists in looking at the first new moon of the year through a silk handkerchief which has never been washed, at the same time making use of this invocation:

New moon, new moon, I hail thee,

New moon, new moon, be kind to me;
If I marry man, or man marry me,

Show me how many moons it will be.

As many moons as the person sees through the handkerchief-the threads multiplying the vision-betoken the number of years she will remain unmarried. Again, a correspondent of Notes and Queries1 tells us that, being on a visit in Yorkshire, he was much amused one evening to find the servants of the house excusing themselves for being out of the way when the bell rang, on the plea that they had been "hailing the first new moon of the new year." This mysterious and eventful salutation was effected by means of a looking-glass, in which the first sight of the moon was to be had, and the momentous object to be gained was the all-important secret as to how many years were to elapse before the marriage of the spectators. If one mcon was seen in the glass, one year; if two, two years, and so on. In the case in question, the maid and the boy only saw one moon apiece. An old Devonshire admonition tells those who are anxious to gain an insight into futurity, to take off one of their stockings when they first see the new moon of the new year, and to run to the next stile. On their arrival, they will find between two of their toes a hair, which will be the colour of their lovers'. In the North of England and Scotland 2 it was a prevalent belief that, if a person on first catching a glimpse of the new moon were instantly to stand still, kiss his hand three times, and bow to it, he would find something of value before that moon was out. In many places, too, it is considered lucky to see the new moon over the right shoulder, but unlucky over the left; whereas, when straight before one, it is said to prognosticate good fortune to the end of the month.

Again, one of the most popular notions in vulgar philosophy is that of the sympathy of growing and declining nature with the waxing and waning of the moon. In Tusser's "Five Hundred Points of Husbandry," under February, we find the following agricultural directions:

1 First Series, i. p. 177.

Napier's Folk-lore of West of Scotland, 1879, p. 98,

Sow peas and beans in the wane of the moon ;
Who soweth them sooner he soweth too soon;
That they with the planet may rest and rise,
And flourish with bearing most plentiful-wise:

showing, as Dr. Tylor' points out, neatly in a single case the two contrary lunar influences. In Devonshire, it is a common idea that apples "shrump up" if picked when the moon is waning; and it is a Cornish notion that timber should be felled on the "bating" of the moon, because the "sap is then down," and the wood will be more durable. In the same county, also, herbs for drying are gathered at the full of the moon; as likewise apples and pears, in order that they may retain their plumpness. Many, also, prefer to sow their garden and other seeds during the moon's first quarter, from the idea that they will then germinate quicker and grow stronger than on the decrease. In some parts it is a prevalent belief that the growth of mushrooms is influenced by the changes of the moon, and, in Essex, many a farmer pays strict attention to this rule:

When the moon is at the full,
Mushrooms you may freely pull;
But when the moon is on the wane,
Wait ere you think to pluck again.

In addition to agricultural operations, the moon has been supposed to exert great influence on human birth, and the killing of animals for the table. In Cornwall, when a child is born in the interval between an cld moon and the first appearance of a new one, it is said that it will never live to reach the age of puberty. Hence the saying, "No moon, no man." In the same county, too, when a boy is born in the wane of the moon, it is believed that the next birth will be a girl, and vice versâ; and it is also a prevalent belief that when a birth takes place on the "growing of the moon" the next child will be of the same sex. In many places eggs are set under the hen at new moon; and, in Suffolk, it is considered unlucky to kill a pig on the waning moon, lest the pork should waste in the boiling a superstition we find alluded to in Macready's "Reminiscences" (vol. i. p. 475)-" Elstree, December 14th, 1835.-Phillips hoped the pig would not be killed on Wednesday, as the fulling of the moon was not good for the bacon." Dr. Tylor,2 too, amusingly remarks that the Lithuanian precept to wean boys on a waxing, but girls on a waning, moon, no doubt to make the boys sturdy and the girls slim and delicate, is a fair match for the Orkney islanders' Primitive Culture, 1873, i. 130. 2 Ibid. i. p. 130.

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objection to marrying except with a growing moon, while some even wish for a flowing tide. Another piece of folk-lore associated with the moon is its supposed influence in healing certain diseases. In the south of England,' the May new moon is said to have a share in curing scrofulous complaints. Mr. Henderson relates an interesting case of a man residing near Chichester who twice travelled into Dorsetshire with different members of his family to place them under a "cunning man" residing there. His charms were only potent in the month of May. He further required his patients to have their eyes fixed upon the new May moon while they received from his hands boxes of ointment made from herbs gathered when the moon was full. On one occasion as many as two hundred persons waited to be charmed. In Staffordshire, a remedy for whooping cough consists in taking out the child to let it see the new moon, at the same time rubbing its stomach and repeating the following invocation:

What I see, may it increase;

What I feel, may it decrease;

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

In Cornwall, the club-moss, if properly gathered, is considered good against all diseases of the eyes." The gathering is regarded as a mystery, and if any man ventures to write the secret, the virtues of the moss avail him no more. In spite of this, however, Mr. Hunt has boldly revealed to us this wonderful secret, the mystery of which, to quote his own words, consists as thus:-On the third day of the moon, when the thin crescent is seen for the first time, show it the knife with which the moss is to be cut, and say:

As Christ heal'd the issue of blood,

Do thou cut what thou cuttest for good.

At sun-down, having carefully washed the hands, the club moss is to be cut kneeling. It is to be carefully wrapt in a fine linen cloth, and subsequently boiled in some water taken from the spring nearest to its place of growth. This may be used as a fomentation, or the clubmoss may be made into an ointment, with butter made from the milk of a new cow. In Devonshire, the hair and nails should always be cut during the waning of the moon, and persons troubled with corns are recommended to cut them after the moon has been at its fullsuperstition alluded to in the "British Apollo:"

2

Pray tell your querist if he may

Rely on what the vulgar say,

' Henderson's Folk-lore of Northern Counties, 1879, p. 115.

Popular Romances of the West of England, 1871, p. 415.

-a

That when the moon's in her increase,
If corns be cut they'll grow apace;
But if you always do take care
After the full your corns to pare,

They do insensibly decay

And will in time wear quite away.

It is a very prevalent notion that the moon exerts an extraordinary influence on the insane, increasing the symptoms of madness. This originates, according to some,' from the fact that the insane are naturally more restless on light than on dark nights; and that their symptoms are consequently more aggravated through loss of sleep. Dr. Forbes Winslow,2 in summing up the various theories on the subject, says it is impossible to ignore altogether the evidence of such men as Pinel, Daquin, Guislain, and others. Yet the experience of modern psychological physicians is to a great degree opposed to the deductions of these eminent men. He adds: "May not the alleged changes observed among the insane at certain phases of the moon arise, not from the direct, but the indirect influence of this planet? It is well known that the rarity of the air, the electric conditions of atmosphere, the degree of heat, dryness, moisture, and amount of wind prevailing, are all more or less modified by the state of the moon. In the generality of bodily diseases, what obvious changes are observed to accompany the meteorological conditions referred to? Surely those suffering from diseases of the brain and nervous system affecting the mind cannot, with any show of reason, be considered as exempt from the operations of agencies that are universally admitted to affect patients afflicted with other maladies." In a note, he further tells us that an intelligent lady, who occupied for about five years the position of matron in his establishment for insane ladies, has remarked that she invariably observed a great agitation among the patients when the moon was at its full. Shakespeare 3 informs us that the moon makes men insane when

She comes more nearer earth than she was wont.

Another popular idea is that the weather changes with the moon's quarters, although, of course, there is no truth in this piece of vulgar astrology. That educated people, as Dr. Tylor has truly pointed out, to whom exact weather records are accessible, should still find satisfaction in this fanciful lunar rule, is an interesting case of intellectual survival. Yet, however, the fact remains, and in every-day

1 See Notes and Queries, 2nd Ser. xii. 492.
2 Light: its Influence on Life and Health.
Macbeth, act v. sc. 2,

• Primitive Culture, 1871, p. 118.

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