Boil soap in the increase of the moon.
Cut corn in the decrease of the moon, else it will spoil.
Spread manure when the horns of the moon are down.
Lay the first or lower rail of a fence when the horns of the moon are up. Put in the stakes and finish the fence when the horns are down.
Roof buildings when the horns of the moon are down, else the shingles will curl up at the edges and the nails will draw out.
Lay a board on the grass; if the horns of the moon are up, the grass will not be killed; if they are down, it will.
Cut your hair on the first Friday after the new moon.
Never cut your hair in the decrease of the moon.
Cut your corns in the decrease of the moon.
Nos. 1114-1123.--These superstitions regarding planting crops according to the moon are by no means idle sayings that have no influence over farmers. I know positively that in many parts of the United States and in Prince Edward Island gardens and fields are often planted after direct reference to the almanac in regard to the moon's changes. Metropolitan dwellers have small knowledge of what an important book the almanac is to many country people. In many a quiet farm home the appearance of the new almanac is looked forward to with great interest. Its arrival is welcomed, and it is hung up near the kitchen clock for constant reference. It is studied with care, especially on Sundays. The farmer or farm-wife, who would scorn to do an hour's work in the hay-field to save a crop from a Sunday shower, earnestly peruses the almanac to get rules to guide the week-day sowing and planting. There are old auguries, too, of whose import I am not definitely informed, to be derived from consulting the signs of the zodiac; auguries, I think, concerning human destiny as well as the planting of crops. Speaking of the place held by the almanac recalls one of those neighborhood anecdotes that by oft telling become classic. A young woman long ill, with consumption I believe, died very suddenly. Her brother, in speaking of the event, said: "Why, no, we never thought of Mary dying so soon. Why, she sat up in the big rocking-chair most all Sunday afternoon, reading the almanac, and then she died on Monday." Poor Mary, the thin volume was her sole library!
--It would involve a much more extended discussion than the space-limits of these notes will allow, to undertake to show the origin and meaning of the superstitions in regard to the sun and sunwise movement. While the origin and meaning of sun-worship has been very fully treated by Sir G.W. Cox, Professor Max Müller, Professor De Gubernatis, and others, the existence in modern times and among civilized communities of usages which seem to be derived from sun-worship has apparently almost escaped notice. I quote in this connection a few paragraphs from my brief article on this subject in the Popular Science Monthly for June, 1895:--
"In dealing with the origination of actions or customs in which is involved what Dr. Fewkes calls the ceremonial circuit,[158-1] it is difficult to determine the value of the factor, whether it be large or small, that is due to the greater convenience of moving in a right-handed direction. Occasionally the dextral circuit is followed in cases in which it is evidently less convenient than the sinistral would be, as in dealing cards in all ordinary games. Also, who can tell just how large or small an element may depend upon the tradition that the left hand in itself is uncanny without reference to the sun's apparent motion? There certainly is a general feeling of wide distribution that to be left-handed is unfortunate. Dr. Fewkes's careful and valuable researches among the Moki Indians of Arizona, however, show without doubt that they in their religious rites make the circuits sinistrally, i.e., contrary to the apparent course of the sun, or, as physicists say, contra-clockwise. The Mokis also are careful to stir medicines according to the sinistral circuit. But doubtless instances go to show that among Asiatic and European peoples the general belief or feeling is that the dextral circuit--i.e., clockwise, or with the apparent motion of the sun--is the correct and auspicious direction."
