“When three traditions among peoples so far apart geographically so essentially agree in one, the lessons to be learned from comparative mythology ought not to be lost upon the philosophical student of human history.””
“We have reached three general conclusions. First when the moon is occulted by the earth, it is believed to be devoured by some evil demon, or by wolves or dogs. This is the superstitious vagary found in a number of cultures throughout the world. Secondly, a lunar eclipse is the precursor of some dreadful calamity to the inhabitants of the earth. This notion is also traceable in every quarter of the globe. And thirdly, during the obscuration the light of the moon is reddened and at last extinguished by the blood which flows from its wounds, which belief originates with the Edda and obtains in the Western world.””
“Of the beating kettles, basons, and other brazen vessels used by the ancients when the moone was eclipsed (which they did to drown the charms of witches, that the moon might not hear them, and so be drawne from her sphere as they suppos’d), I shall not need to speake, being a thing so generally knowne…””
“There is a trick invented by Pythagoras which is performed in the following manner: the moon being at the full, someone writes with blood on a looking glass anything he has a mind to; then, having given notice of it to another person, he stands behind that other and turns towards the moon the letters written in the glass. The other, looking fixedly on the shining orb, reads in it all that is written on the mirror as if it were written on the moon.””
Timothy HarleyTimothy Healey is an American applied mathematician working in the areas of nolinear elasticity, nonlinear partial differential equations, bifurcation theory and the calculus of variations. He is curr...
“Native Chinese records aver that on the 18th day of the 6th moon, 1590, snow fell one summer night from the midst of the moon. The flakes were like fine willow flowers on shreds of silk.””
“Another weather guide connected with the moon is, that to see ‘the old moon in the arms of the new one’ is reckoned a sign of fine weather; and so is the turning up of the horns of the new moon. In this position, it is supposed to retain the water, which is imagined to be in it, and which would run out if the horns were turned down.””
“In some parts it is a prevalent belief that the growth of mushrooms is influenced by the changes of the moon, and in Essex the subjoined rule is often scrupulously adhered to: ‘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.””
“Two hundred years ago, a wise man witnessed a wonderful phenomenon in the moon: he actually beheld a live elephant there--but the unbelieving have since made all manner of fun at the good knight's expense. Take the following burlesque of this celebrated discovery as an instance. "Sir Paul Neal, a conceited virtuoso of the seventeenth century, gave out that he had discovered 'an elephant in the moon.' It turned out that a mouse had crept into his telescope, which had been mistaken for an elephant in the moon." Well, we concede that an elephant and a mouse are very much alike.””