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708 SKY AND STABS.
feature is the inquiry made of the sun and moon, who overlook
the world and know all secrets (CastreVs Myth. 62) . So in our
fairytales the seeker asks of the sun, moon and stars (Kinderm.
no. 25. 88 conf. ; 3, 218-9), some of whom are found helpful and
sympathizing, others cruel and cannibal (Vuk no. 10). In Ser
vian songs the moon and the morningstar (danitsa) hold a colloquy
on the affairs of men (Vuk 3, 3). During an eclipse of the sun
(I don t know whether of the moon also) our people cover the
wells up, else their water would turn impure, Superst. I, 589.
Is there a trace of moon- worship to be found in the fact that
people had an image of the moon carved on rocks and stones that
marked a boundary? In BA. 542 an Alamannic doc. of 1155 is
given, which traces the custom all the way up to king Dagobert.
In Westphalian docs, as late as the 17th cent. I find halfmonds-
schnad-stones, 1 unless the word halfmoon here means something
else.
In Bavaria there is a Mondsee, OHGr. Mdninseo (lunae lacus),
in Austria a Mdnhart (lunae silva, ^ Aovva V\TJ in Ptolemy); 2 we
may safely credit both with mythic associations.
As time is more easily reckoned by the changes of the moon,
which visibly mark off the week (p. 126-7), than by the sun, our
ancestors seem to have had, beside the solar year, a lunar one
for common use, whose thirteen months answered to the twelve
of the solar year. The recurring period of from 29 to 30 days
was therefore called menops, mdnod, from mena, mano. Hence
also it was natural to count by nights, not : days nee dierum
numerum sed noctium computant, sic constituunt, sic condicunt,
nox ducere diem videtur/ Tac. Germ. c. 11. And much in the
same way, the year was named by its winter, which holds the
same relation to summer as night to day. A section of time was
measured by the number of se ennights, fortnights, months or
winters it contained.
And that is also the reason why the phases
of the moon had
such a commanding influence on important undertakings. They
are what Jornandes cap. 11 calls lunae commoda incommodaque.
It is true, the performance of any kind of work was governed by
berc.
1 Defence of Wulften castle, Vienna 1766. suppl. p. 71-2. 162.
2 Can Manhart Lave come from Maginhart ? Helbl. 13, 190 has Meinharts-