have been wet and
windy, in nineteen cases out of twenty." [347] In Italy it is said, "If
the moon change on a Sunday, there will be a flood before the
month is out." New moon on Monday, or moon-day, is, of course,
everywhere held a sign of good weather and luck.

That a misty moon is a misfortune to the atmosphere is widely
supposed. In Scotland it is an agricultural maxim among the canny
farmers that--

"If the moon shows like a silver shield,
You need not be afraid to reap your field
But if she rises haloed round,
Soon we'll tread on deluged ground." [348]

Others say that a mist is unfavourable only with the new moon, not
with the old.

"An old moon in a mist
Is worth gold in a kist (chest)
But a new moon's mist
Will never lack thirst," [349]

is a rugged rhyme found in several places. In Cornwall the idea is
that--

"A fog and a small moon
Bring an easterly wind soon."

The east wind, as we know, is dry. Two of the Shepherd of
Banbury's rules are:

"xii. If mists in the new moon, rain in the old.
xiii. If mists in the old, rain in the new moon." [350]

One thing is a meteorological certainty: the full moon very
frequently clears the sky. But this may be partly accounted for by
the fact that a full moon shows the night to be clear, which in the
moon's absence might be called cloudy.

Another observation shows that in proportion to the clearness of the
night is its cold. The clouds covering the earth with no thick
blanket, it radiates its heat into space. This has given rise to the
notion that the moon itself reduces our temperature. It is _cold_ at
night without doubt. But the cold moon is so warm when the sun is
shining full on its disk that no creature on earth could endure a
moment's contact with its surface. The centre of the "pale-faced
moon" is hotter than boiling water. This thought may cheer us when
"the cold round moon shines deeply down." We may be pardoned if
we take with a tincture of scepticism the following statement
"Native Chinese records aver that on the 18th day of the 6th moon,
1590, snow fell one summer night from the midst of the moon. The
flakes were like fine willow flowers on shreds of silk." [351] Instead
of cold, it is more likely that the white moon gives us heat, for from
Melloni's letter to Arago it seems to be already an ascertained fact.
Having concentrated the lunar rays with a lens of over three feet
diam