d 'when the wind is at north.'" [333] Of trees, astrologers
affirm that the moon rules the palm tree (which the ancients say
"sends forth a twig every time the moon rises") and all plants, trees,
and herbs that are juicy and full of sap. [334]

"A description of the New Netherlands, written about 1650, remarks
that the savages of that land 'ascribe great influence to the moon
over crops.' This venerable superstition, common to all races, still
lingers among our own farmers, many of whom continue to observe
'the signs of the moon' in sowing grain, setting out trees, cutting
timber, and other rural avocations." [335] What is here said of the
new world applies also to the old; for in England a current
expression in Huntingdonshire is "a dark Christmas sends a fine
harvest": dark meaning moonless.

Of the lunar influence upon the tides, old John Lilly writes: "There
is nothing thought more admirable, or commendable in the sea, than
the ebbing and flowing; and shall the moone, from whom the sea
taketh this virtue, be accounted fickle for encreasing and
decreasing?" [336] Another writer of the sixteenth century says,
"The moone is founde, by plaine experience, to beare her greatest
stroke uppon the seas, likewise in all things that are moiste, and by
consequence in the braines of man." [337] Dennys tells us that "the
influence exerted by the moon on tides is recognised by the
Chinese." [338] What some record in prose, others repeat in rhyme.
The following is _one_ kind of poetry.

"Moone changed, keepes closet, three daies as a Queene,
Er she in hir prime, will of any be scene:
If great she appereth, it showreth out,
If small she appereth, it signifieth drout.
At change or at full, come it late, or else soone,
Maine sea is at highest, at midnight and noone,
But yet in the creekes, it is later high flood:
Through farnesse of running, by reason as good." [339]

Indirectly, through the influence upon the tides, the moon is
concerned in human mortality.

"Tyde flowing is feared, for many a thing,
Great danger to such as be sick it doth bring.
Sea eb, by long ebbing, some respit doth give,
And sendeth good comfort, to such as shal live." [340]

Henderson says, "It is a common belief along the east coast of
England, from Northumberland to Kent, that deaths mostly occur
during the falling of the tide." [341] Every reader of the inimitable
Dickens will be reminded