HOW ECLIPSES OF THE MOON IMPRESS SAVAGES.

Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 61, 14 March 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW ECLIPSES OF THE MOON IMPRESS SAVAGES.

The Greenlanders have a personal apprehension in this matter, and believe that the moon rummages their houses for skins or victuals, and destroys those persons who have not observed due sobriety. The South American Chiquitos try to help the darkened star against a dog that has worried it till its light has been coloured red, and extinguished by its streaming blood ; and they shoot aiTows into the sky to drive away the dog. Charlevoix gives a similar account of the Guarini, except that with them a tiger takes the place of the dog ; and in the language of the Tupis the literal translation of the word eclipse is, "The jaguar has eaten the sun." So in Asia, the Tunguses believe an evil spirit has swallowed the earth's satellites, and they try to frighten it away by shots at the darkened disc. In Sumatra and Malacca the fear is aroused that a great snake will swallow the sun or the moon ; and the Nagas of Assam set up a great drum-beating, as if in battle, to frighten away the devouring monster. Among the American tribes are some who believe that eclipses are a warning of the approaching disappearance of the sun, and the fall of the moon at the end of the world. The Pottawattamies tell of a demon in the shape of an old woman sitting in the moon weaving a basket, on the completion of which the world will be destroyed. A dog contends with the woman, tearing the basket to pieces every once in a while, and then an eclipse of the moon takes place; others imagine that the moon is hungry, sick, or dying at these times, while the Alfuras, of Ceram, think he is asleep, and make a great uproar to awake him.