there 'is to be seen in the moon a
mannikin who stole wood'; and Praetorius, in his description of the
world, that 'superstitious people assert that the black flecks in the
moon are a man who gathered wood on a Sabbath, and is therefore
turned into stone.'" [17]

The North Frisians, among the most ancient and pure of all the
German tribes, tell the tale differently. "At the time when wishing
was of avail, a man, one Christmas Eve, stole cabbages from his
neighbour's garden. When just in the act of walking off with his
load, he was perceived by the people, who conjured (wished) him
up in the moon. There he stands in the full moon, to be seen by
everybody, bearing his load of cabbages to all eternity. Every
Christmas Eve he is said to turn round once. Others say that he stole
willow-boughs, which he must bear for ever. In Sylt the story goes
that he was a sheep-stealer, that enticed sheep to him with a bundle
of cabbages, until, as an everlasting warning to others, he was
placed in the moon, where he constantly holds in his hand a bundle
of cabbages. The people of Rantum say that he is a giant, who at the
time of the flow stands in a stooping posture, because he is then
taking up water, which he pours out on the earth, and thereby causes
the flow; but at the time of the ebb he stands erect and rests from his
labour, when the water can subside again." [18]

Crossing the sea into Scandinavia, we obtain some valuable
information. First, we find that in the old Norse, or language of the
ancient Scandinavians, the sun is always feminine, and the moon
masculine. In the _Voelu-Spa_, a grand, prophetic poem, it is
written--

"But the sun had not yet learned to trace
The path that conducts to her dwelling-place
To the moon arrived was not the hour
When he should exert his mystic power
Nor to the stars was the knowledge given,
To marshal their ranks o'er the fields of heaven." [19]

We also learn that "the moon and the sun are brother and sister; they
are the children of Mundilfoeri, who, on account of their beauty,
called his son Mani, and his daughter Sol." Here again we observe
that the moon is masculine. "Mani directs the course of the moon,
and regulates Nyi (the new moon) and Nithi (the waning moon). He
once took up two children from the earth, Bil and Hiuki, as they
were going from the well of Byrgir, bearing on their shoulders the
bucket Soeg, and the pole Simul." [20] These two childre