diseases. This, from various circumstances, is more apparent in some of the Asiatic countries,' and may have given rise to the custom which extended into Britain of exposing sick children on the house-tops."

It would be superfluous to refer to all the superstitious rites, extinct or extant, that show how deeply rooted in the minds of our ancestors was the belief in the control exercised by the moon over the affairs of men; nor is it necessary to accumulate proofs that the belief in its supposed influence had not ceased with the termination of the eighteenth century. In every department of witchcraft and sorcery the position of the moon and planets was an element of special consideration. The ill-luck of having no silver money-coins of the moon, which, says the author, "ever since bleeds a fresh drop at every change of the moon."-Martin's Western Islands, p. 13.

3

The year 1843, when Sinde was seized by the British was very unhealthy, and the troops were necessarily without sufficient barracks. The great and certain increase of fever cases at changes of the moon then became convincing to the most sceptical.

2 Theod. Arch. Cant. Lib. Poenitentialis, xxvii. 14; Ecgbert, Arch. Ebor. Confessionale, xxxiii., in Thorpe's Ancient Laws of England, 1840.

Astarte, the Queen of Heaven, was worshipped on high-places, in groves, and upon the roofs of houses.-Cruden's Concordance.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland may be found abundant proofs of the superstitious reverence with which the moon was regarded.

An early tourist mentions the name of a man in the island of Lewis who accidentally cut his toe at the change

In Devonshire, in this century, nurses warned their children against pointing their fingers at the sun,

moon, or stars.

In the end of the eighteenth century a streamlet or well in the cave of Uchtrie Macken, near Portpatrick, Wigtonshire, continued to be held in reverence, and invalids, and persons supposed to be suffering under the influence of witchcraft were broughtparticularly on the first Sunday of May to be bathed in the water. This ceremony took place "at the change of the moon, which is still (1791) considered with superstitious reverence."-Old Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. i. p. 47; Sir John G. Dalyell's Darker Superstitims of Scotland, p. 80.

THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN.

137

of other metal being of no avail-when you first see or hail a new moon, is still a common belief from Cornwall to Caithness, as well as in Ireland.

A clergyman of Edinburgh, writing in the present century, says " It is strange that in a land so long favoured with clear gospel light some should still be so much under the influence of the grossest superstition that they not only venture on divination, but in their unhallowed eagerness to dive into the secrets of futurity, even dare directly to give homage to the Queen of Heaven."" One of the "heathenish referred to is the desire

1

acts" of unhallowed eagerness thus

of a maiden to see the likeness of the person who is to become her husband. For the purpose of gratifying her curiosity it was necessary to place herself on a yerd-fast (earth-fast) stone, with her back leant against a tree-in this position to receive the light of the first new moon of a new year, and then to acknowledge its presence and its power by the invocation, "O new moon! I hail thee." This was the Scottish form. In England the salutation was "All hail to thee, moon: all hail to thee!" In both countries this address was followed by a request that the moon would be pleased to reveal the apparition of the person to whom the devotee was thereafter to be married. The position to be assumed by the person doing homage to the moon is remarkable. Earth-fast stones

3

1 Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, "Mone."

2 In Yorkshire they kneel on a ground-fast stone.-Aubrey's Miscel lanies, p. 132, edit. 1857.

The success of this form of divination is vouched for, in two instances, by Aubrey in his Miscellanies, pp. 132, 133; originally published in 1696.

i.e. natural altars with inherited sanctity-were connected in South Britain, as well as in Scotland, with the heathenism of the earlier Christians. In a homily preserved at Cambridge offerings to earth-fast rocks are denounced.1

"2

In Ireland, when the new moon is first seen people commonly bow the knee and say the Lord's Prayer. When the moon is near the wane, the address to her is "Leave us as well as thou found us.' In some parts of England the people had a custom at full moon of saying, "It is a fine moon, God bless her." In the Highlands of Scotland the women make a curtsey to the new moon. The aboriginal tribes in the Dekhan of India also acknowledge the presence of the sun and moon by an act of reverence.

3

4

Raised on a plain in North Ronaldshay, one of the Orkney isles, is a large upright stone, nine or ten feet high and four broad, at which it was a practice for the people to assemble on the first day of the year, and to dance by moonlight, with no music but their own singing. This is mentioned in the statistical account of the island, where it is added that there is no tradition regarding the origin of the monument. The festival would probably come under the description of the "heathen songs and devil's games" that were prohibited by King Edgar. The women of Croisie, in France, dance round a menhir (upright stone)."

1

Wright's Superstitions of England, parish had been an eye-witness. He vol. i. p. 242.

2 Gibson's Camden, vol. ii. p.

380.

3 Brand's Popular Antiquities by Sir H. Ellis, vol. i. p. 72.

To this the clergyman of the

writes in 1793.-Old Statistical Ac

count of Scotland, vol. vii. p. 489.

HEATHEN OBSERVANCES.

139

To similar customs Strabo may have referred when he says "It is reported that the Celtiberians, and their neighbours to the north, sacrifice to a nameless god every full moon at night before their doors, the whole family passing the night in dancing and festival." The Sixth Council of Constantinople, in A.D. 680, interdicted the lighting of fires to the new moon, and leaping through these fires. There was a subsequent inhibition in A.D. 742 against sacrilegious fires. Of the origin of such ceremonies we are not left in doubt; they are described as ancient and pagan observances.'

66

The following quotation is from Kenrick's Phænicia :— Astoreth, or Astarte, whom the Greeks sometimes identify with Juno, sometimes with Venus, appears physically to represent the moon. Her relation to Baal (Baalsamen, the sun) was expressed by the feminine form Baalith. She was the chief local deity of Sidon.""

In the chapter on the "Religion of Early Britons" are noticed the remains, in one of the Western Isles, of a ruined temple of Annait, a deity whose worship seems to have been connected with that of the moon."

3

Chut the worship of the sun is mentioned; but in that case the king may more particularly have referred to his subjects of Scandinavian descent.Thorpe's Ancient Laws of England, vol. i. p. 379.

CHAPTER VI.

WORSHIP OF SPIRITS, ATMOSPHERIC AND TERRESTRIAL ETHEREAL FIRE-SPIRIT OF THE WATERS: THE WATER KELPIE, ETC.-SPIRIT OF THE EARTH-ELVES AND IMPS.

Objects of Worship common to Phoenicians, Hindus, and Celts-The Sun and the Elements-Atmospheric and Terrestrial Phenomena—Spirit of Ethereal Fire-Legend of Lochawe-Cailleach Vear-Crones of the Island of Gigha and Druidesses of Sena-Spirit of the Waters-The Water Kelpie-Extraordinary Superstition at St. Vigeans-Sunken-kirk- -Spirit of the Earth-St. Oran and St. Columba-The Goodman's Croft-The Field-Deities and Deities of Britain.

U

NDER the head of “ Phoenician Influence on Britons" is

noticed a similarity in the religion of the Phoenicians and the heathenism of Britain; and in comparing "Customs and Superstitions of Central Asia with those of Western Europe" is remarked the conformity of certain early objects of worship in these remote regions. In the chapters headed "Baal and Astarte-the Sun and Moon" are detailed some particulars regarding the planetary worship of our heathen ancestors; and to these are now to be added their adoration, whether it were the offspring of fear or reverence, of portentous phenomena, and other objects, atmospheric and terrestrial,-in this particular also resembling the ancient Hindus of the Vedas, and the earliest inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon.