ed _chone_, which is also
_t-chen_, _chin_, or _sin_. But the point lies in this, that Cain was
condemned to be a "a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth," which gives
much apparent strength to the idea that Cain, whether Shemitic or Aryan,
was, for a great crime, or as chief of sinners, imprisoned in the moon.

This sufferer, in different legends, has been represented as a
Sabbath-breaker, as Judas Iscariot, as Isaac, and many more
transgressors, almost always with a _bunch_ or _bush_ of _thorns_, for
which there has been literally no real explanation whatever. This I will
now investigate, and, I think, clearly explain.

Dante in two places speaks of the Man in the Moon as Cain, and as if it
were a very popular legend (_Inferno_, xx. 123):

"Ma vienne omai che gia tiene 'l confine
D'ambedue gli emisperi, e tocca l'onda
Sotto Sibilia, Caino e le spine
E gia iernotte fu la Luna tonda."

"But now he comes who doth the borders hold
Of the two hemispheres, and drive the waves
Under the sibyl, Cain, with many thorns.
And yesternight the moon was round and full;
Take care that it may never do thee harm
At any time when in the gloomy wood."

This twentieth canto is devoted to the sorcerers in hell, and ends with
allusion to the full moon, the sibyl, and Cain, as allied to witchcraft,
prediction, and sin. When the moon is full it is also "high tides" with
the witches, now as of yore:

"Full moon, high sea,
Great man shalt thou be:
Red dawning, cloudy sky,
Bloody death shalt thou die."

Dante again mentions Cain in the moon, in the _Paradiso_, ii. 50:

"Ma ditemi, che con li segni lui
Dio questo corpo, che laggiuso in terra
Fan di _Cain_ favoleggiare altrui?"

"But tell me now what are the gloomy marks
Upon this body, which down there on earth
Make people tell so many tales of Cain?"

To which Beatrice replies by a mysterious physical explanation of the
phenomenon, advising him to take three _mirrors_ and observe how the moon
is reflected from one to the other, and that in this manner the _formal
principio_, or first creative power, passes from light to darkness. The
reader will here remember that with the witches the _mirror_ is specially
devoted to conjuring Cain.

It is worth noting that a _spechietto_, or small looking-glass, was
specially (Barretti) "a little mirror placed at the bottom of a jewel
casket."

I would