BELIEFS ABOUT THE MOON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20584, 6 December 1928, Page 13

BELIEFS ABOUT THE MOON

j,. ; FROM MANY COUNTRIES. .' *' beliefs . regarding the 'I dark spots ..that appear on the surface of the moon are held in various parts of the world. .The Eskimos have an oridtial superstition. They -"say thatToneTy Amga (the moon) chased his sister (the sun) .m bis wrath.... Just as he was about .to catch her she suddenly turned round and threw a great handful. o£ soot'in nis face and escaped him,-and of the Boot he bears/the traces to this day. ' ..South American Indians .believe that a girl 'who'had fallen in love with the mo6n ( sprang toward.it. was caught and kept by it, and'that it is her figure which is seen on the moon's face. ..Samoa islanders regard the. spots as representing, a; woman carrying a child. Other southern peoples have similar beliefs, the woman and child sometimes being altered into an old woman bearing a.burden on her back. . Iri the eastern part of Asia the spots are believed to,be a rabbit or a hare. The Chinese, in particular,; regard them as a hare sitting up. and pounding rice iii .a mortar. Siamese take the same view. -Others see in the moon a man and woman working in a field. > Curiously, the North American Indians have, almost the same superstition as the Chinese. On old monuments.in Central America the moon appears as a jug or vessel, out of which an animal like a rabbit is jumping. . . The inhabitants of North Western : India, who account , for the moon's monthly, disappearance by declaring that' she is burnt up-regularly "and replaced by a fresh moon; explain the dark marks by saying that they are the. ashes' of the former moon, - ...■;/ ._ Dakota Indians have it that the moon is eaten by mice. The Polynesian superstitution ia that the souls of the dead feed <. on her. According to Hottentots, the moon suffers from headache, and when it gets very had she hides her-head with her hand and covers her face ..from the ftnze of the world. .■'■''..