Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/541

 The Origin and Value of Weather Lore. 193

they happen raise showers and rain, others great droughts, some vio- lent winds, others earthquakes, some a scarcity of fruits of the earth, others terrible fires." The curious thing is that Cardan and hun- dreds of other philosophers like him, while recognizing the diverse character of the conditions following each eclipse, utterly failed to see the proof that the eclipse itself can have absolutely no effect upon our weather, and, in like manner, that the position of a planet or star or any change in the moon can have no effect. It ought not to take much erudition to show that one eclipse cannot produce a severe drought and the very next one a heavy rain. Strange to say, in this evening of the nineteenth century, there are planetary weather prophets who believe and teach that Vulcan (there is no such planet) will make hot weather in a part of his orbit, but cold in another part.

It must be admitted that the universality of the belief that the moon affects our weather to a very marked degree is difficult of ex- planation. Has this belief been handed down from a common origin in the dim past, or have the different nations arrived at the same conclusion independently ? It is quite difficult to learn just exactly what the common idea is. Out of perhaps fifty questions of as many persons in New England, it was gathered that most considered there to be a greater likelihood of rain at the time of new than of full moon, and observations along the North Atlantic coast seem to show a slight preponderance of rain near new moon. This, however, entirely fails in the interior of the United States, and on the Pacific coast the full moon seems to be the time of greater rainfall.

This belief in a lunar effect upon the weather has touched the world of science as well as of astrology. I find the following lunar table ascribed to the great Herschel, "constructed upon a philo- sophical consideration of the great attraction of the sun and moon in their several positions respecting the earth, and confirmed by the experience of many years' actual observation : " —

LUNAR TABLE.

If it be new or full moon or the moon enters into the first or last quar- ters at IN SUMMER. IN WINTER.

Noon Very rainy, Snow and rain.

From 2 to 4 p. M., Changeable, Fair and mild.

4 to 6, Fair,' Fair.

6 8 < Fair, wind N. W., Fair and frosty, N. or N. E.

\ Rain, wind S. W., Rain, S. or S. W.

( Fair, if wind N. W., Fair and frosty, if wind N. or N. E.

8 t0 I0 ' 1 Rain, if wind S. W., Rain, if S. or S. W.

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