Page:The Music of the Spheres.djvu/238

 side was turned to the earth thus causing an eclipse. Many people among the European nations covered their wells and fountains for fear that the water would become contaminated by the poisonous, mists which arose during an eclipse. The notion was probably due to the fact that the drop in temperature is often accompanied by a fall of dew.

The Peruvians thrashed dogs during an eclipse so that their howling would keep evil spirits away, and for the same reason, the Romans beat their pots and pans, lifted up torches and fire-brands into the air. The people of the Northern nations also created a great din, for they imagined that the sun was pursued by fierce wolves (Skoll and Hati), who tried to swallow their brilliant prey so that the world would return to its primeval darkness.

Crooke, in "Popular Religion and Folk-Lore," says that

It is said that at such times the rivers are covered with human heads.

Some barbarian tribes imagined that when the sun or moon began to lose its light, the orb was sickening under the arts of a wicked magician and they danced and screamed and beat their tomtoms in a wild frenzy so that the wicked one might become afraid and steal away. The well-known idea of the Chinese, however, is the most interesting of all, for there are records showing that for several thousand years these people believed that an eclipse was caused by the attempt on the part of a huge black dragon to seize the burning ball and swallow it. The dread of