e number of human beings who have, articulately or inarticulately,
cried with Endymion, 'What is there in thee, Moon, that thou should'st
move my heart so potently?' are not to be measured in ordinary figures.

To return, however, to the bad side of Luna's character. We read that in
Assyria deadly influences were ascribed to the moon. In Vedic mythology
there is a story, which Mr. Moncure Conway tells in Demonology and
Devil-lore, of a quarrel between Brahma and Vishnu as to which was the
first born. Siva interferes, and says he is the first born, but will
recognise as his superior whoever is able to see the crown of his head
or the soles of his feet. Vishnu thereupon transforms himself into a
boar, pierces underground, and thus sees the feet of Siva, who salutes
him on his return as the firstborn of the gods. Now, De Gubernatis
regards this fable as 'making the boar emblem of the hidden moon'; and
Mr. Conway thinks there is no doubt that the boar at an early period
became emblematic of the wild forces of Nature. 'From being hunted by
King Odin on earth, it passed to be his favourite food in Valhalla, and
a prominent figure in his spectral hunt.' But it is with the moon, not
with Odin, that we are at present concerned, and so note two curious
items mentioned by Conway. In Sicilian legend, he says, 'Zafarana, by
throwing three hog's bristles on embers, renews her husband's youth';
and in Esthonian legend, a prince, by eating pork, acquires the faculty
of understanding the language of birds. All this opens up a very
suggestive field of inquiry. Thus, Plutarch says that the reason why the
Jews would not eat swine's flesh was because Adonis was slain by a boar,
and Bacchus and Adonis, he says, were the same divinities. Now, if we
turn to Herodotus, we find that wonderful narrator saying: 'The only
deities to whom the Egyptians offer swine are Bacchus and Luna; to these
they sacrifice swine when the moon is full, after which they eat the
flesh,' which at other times they disdained. The meaning of these
sacrifices is understood by those interested, and I do not propose to go
further into the matter. All I wish to do is to point out the curious
involvements, among so many nations, of the moon and the boar.

May we not even trace a connection with the superstition current in
Suffolk, according to 'C. W. J.,' in The Book of Days? 'C. W. J.' says
that in his part of the world it is considered unlucky to kill a pig
when the moon i