Chapter I: Preface

This work is a contribution to light literature, and to the literature of light. Though a monograph, it is also a medley.

The first part is mythological and mirthsome. It is the original nucleus around which the other parts have gathered. Some years since, the writer was led to investigate the world-wide myth of the Man in the Moon, in its legendary and ludicrous aspects; and one study being a stepping-stone to another, the ball was enlarged as it rolled.

The second part, dealing with moon-worship, is designed to show that anthropomorphism and sexuality have been the principal factors in that idolatry which in all ages has paid homage to the hosts of heaven, as _heaved_ above the aspiring worshipper. Man adores what he regards as higher than he. And if the moon is supposed to affect his tides, that body becomes his water-god.

The third part treats of lunar superstitions, many of which yet live in the vagaries which sour and shade our modern sweetness and light.

The fourth and final part is a literary essay on lunar inhabitation, presenting _in nuce_ the present state of the enigma of "the plurality of worlds."

Of the imperfections of his production the author is partly conscious. Not _wholly_ so; for others see us often more advantageously than we see ourselves. But a hope is cherished that this work--a compendium of lunar literature in its least scientific branches--may win a welcome which shall constitute the worker's richest reward. To the innumerable writers who are quoted, the indebtedness felt is inexpressible.

CONTENTS.

I _MOON SPOTS_ 1 Introduction 1 2 The Man in the Moon 5 3 The Woman in the Moon 53 4 The Hare in the Moon 60 5 The Toad in the Moon 69 6 Other Moon Myths 71

II _MOON WORSHIP_ 1 Introduction 77 2 The Moon Mostly a Male Deity 82 3 The Moon a World-Wide Deity 87 4 The Moon a Water Deity 132

III _MOON SUPERSTITIONS_ 1 Introduction 145 2 Lunar Fancies 152 3 Lunar Influences 175

IV _MOON INHABITATION_

_APPENDIX_ 259 _NOTES_ 263 _INDEX_ 285

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1 Voyaging to the Moon _Frontispiece_
From Domingo Gonsales, 1638
2 The Man in the Moon 9
From Hone's _Facetiae and Miscellanies_, 1821.
Drawn by George Cruikshank.
3 "The Man in the Moon Drinks Claret" 12
(From the _Bagford Ballads_, ii, 119, Brit. Mus.)
4 "Who'll Smoak with the Man in the Moon?" 13
(Banks Collection in Brit. Mus.)
5 The Man in the Moon 22
From Ludwig Richter's _Der Familienshatz_, Leipzig, p. 25
6 Seal 28
In the _Archaeological Journal_ for March, 1848, p. 68
7 Representation of the Sabbath-Breaker in Gyffyn Church,
Near Conway 32
From Baring-Gould's _Curious Myths_
8 The Hare in the Moon 63
From Colin de Plancy's _Dictionnaire Infernal_

MOON SPOTS.