[102] Baring-Gould's "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1877, p. 190.
[103] Cf. "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2): "Yet still she is the moon, and I the man."
Ordinarily,[104] however, his offence is stated to have been Sabbath-breaking--an idea derived from the Old Testament. Like the man mentioned in the Book of Numbers (xv. 32), he is caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath; and, as an example to mankind, he is condemned to stand forever in the moon, with his bundle on his back. Instead of a dog, one German version places him with a woman, whose crime was churning butter on Sunday. The Jews have a legend that Jacob is the moon, and they believe that his face is visible. Mr. Baring-Gould[105] says that the "idea of locating animals in the two great luminaries of heaven is very ancient, and is a relic of a primeval superstition of the Aryan race." The natives of Ceylon, instead of a man, have placed a hare in the moon; and the Chinese represent the moon by "a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar."[106]
[104] Fiske, "Myths and Mythmakers," 1873, p. 27.
[105] "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 1877, p. 197.
[106] Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," 1839, p. 10.
From the very earliest times the moon has not only been an object of popular superstition, but been honored by various acts of adoration. In Europe,[107] in the fifteenth century, "it was a matter of complaint that some still worshipped the new moon with bended knee, or hood or hat removed. And to this day we may still see a hat raised to her, half in conservatism and half in jest. It is with deference to silver as the lunar metal that money is turned when the act of adoration is performed, while practical peasant wit dwells on the ill-luck of having no piece of silver when the new moon is first seen." Shakespeare often incidentally alludes to this form of superstition. To quote one or two out of many instances, Enobarbus, in "Antony and Cleopatra" (iv. 9), says:
[107] For further information on this subject, see Tylor's "Primitive Culture," 1873, vol. i. pp. 288, 354-356; vol. ii. pp. 70, 202, 203.
In "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2) the king says:
"Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to shine, Those clouds, removed, upon our watery eyne."