Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/149



ROM time immemorial, most peculiar ideas have been and are entertained in different parts of the world concerning eclipses and their cause. The Hindoos believe that a black demon seizes the moon with its claws. As long as darkness prevails, the air is filled with lamentations, men, women, and children entering the rivers, where they remain up to their neck in water until the return of light.

The Siamese priests (Talapoins) believe that when the moon is eclipsed a great dragon is devouring it; in order to oblige him to let go his prey they make all sorts of abominable noises.

The Chinese, like the Laplanders, are convinced that an eclipse is the work of demons; and make a great hubbub to frighten them away.

The Romans believed the eclipses to be the work of magicians, and that a great noise could prevent them from hurting the moon. Plutarch says that Aglaonice, during an eclipse of the moon which she predicted, persuaded the women of Thessalica that