ical instruments; they
struck their dogs and made them howl, in the hope that the moon,
which they believed had an affection for those animals in
consequence of some signal service which they had rendered her,
would have pity on their cries. The Araucanians called eclipses the
'deaths' of the sun and moon." [314] In Aglio we are told of the
Mexicans that "in the year of Five Rabbits, or in 1510, there was an
eclipse of the sun; they take no account of the eclipses of the moon,
but only of those of the sun; for they say that the sun devours the
moon when an eclipse of the moon takes place." [315] "The
Tlascaltecs, regarding the sun and the moon as husband and wife,
believed eclipses to be domestic quarrels. Ribas tells how the
Sinaloas held that the moon in an eclipse was darkened with the
dust of battle. Her enemy had come upon her, and a terrible fight,
big with consequence to those on earth, went on in heaven. In wild
excitement the people beat on the sides of their houses, encouraging
the moon, and shooting flights of arrows up into the sky to distract
her adversary. Much the same as this was also done by certain
Californians." [316] "At a lunar eclipse the Orinoko Indians seized
their hoes and laboured with exemplary vigour on their growing
corn, saying the moon was veiling herself in anger at their habitual
laziness." [317] The umbrated moon did good in this way: as many
of us remember the beautiful comet of 1858 did good, when it
frightened some trembling Londoners into a speedy settlement of
old debts, in anticipation of the final account. Ellis says of the
Tahitians: "An eclipse of the moon filled them with dismay; they
supposed the planet was _natua_, or under the influence of the spell
of some evil spirit that was destroying it. Hence they repaired to the
temple, and offered prayers for the moon's release. Some imagined
that on an eclipse, the sun and moon were swallowed by the god
which they had by neglect offended. Liberal presents were offered,
which were supposed to induce the god to abate his anger, and eject
the luminaries of day and night from his stomach." [318] The
Tongans or Friendly Islanders have a notion that the earth's surface
is flat, that the sun and moon "pass through the sky and come back
some way, they know not how. When the moon is eclipsed, they
attribute the phenomenon to a thick cloud passing over it: the same
with the sun." [319] In the Hervey Islands, the common exclamation
during an