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auplnek plenil.
PHASES OF THE MOON. 713
Here we see another instance of the ruder races
having more various and picturesque names for natural pheno
mena, which among the more cultivated are replaced by abstract
and uniform ones. No doubt Teutonic speech in its various
branches once possessed other names beside niff and wadel.
Tacitus merely tells us that the Germani held their assemblies
at new moon or full moon, not that the two periods were thought
equally favourable to all enterprises without distinction. We may
guess that some matters were more suitable to new moon, others
to full ; the one would inspire by its freshness, the other by its
fulness. 1
Caesar 1, 50 reports to us the declaration of wise women in the
camp
of Ariovistus :
f non esse fas Gerinanos superare, si ante
novam lunam proelio contendissent, A happy issue to the battle
was expected, at all events in this particular instance, only if it
were fought at new moon.
As far as I can make out from later remnants of German
superstition, with which that of Scotland should be compared
(Chambers 35 b . 36 a
), new-moon, addressed by way of distinction
as gracious lord p. 704, is an auspicious time for commence
ments properly speaking. Marriages are to be concluded in it,
houses to be built : novam
lunam observasti pro domo facienda
aut conjugiis sociandis (Sup. C, 193 b
), the latter just
in Esth. Sup. no. 1. Into a new house you must move at new
moon (Sup. I, 429), not at the wane (498) count ; money by the
new moon (223), she will increase your store (conf. p. 704) ; on
the same
the other hand, she loves not to look into an empty purse (107).
All through, the notion is that money, married bliss and house
stores will thrive and grow with the growing light. So the hair
and nails are cut at new-moon (French Sup. 5. Schiitze s Hoist,
id. 3, 68), to give them a good chance of growiug; cattle are
weaned in the waxing light (I, 757), in the waning they would
get lean; Lith. Sup. 11 says, let girls be weaned at the wane,
1 New-moon was peculiarly holy to ancient peoples, thus to the Greeks the CVTJ
Kal vta, which was also expressed by 4vrj alone = Sanskr. ama (new moon). The
return of Odysseus was expected at that season, Od. 14, 162 :
TOV IJ.&V (J)QLVOVTOS yCUJPOS, TOO S iffTO./JieJ OI.O.
Kama s birth is fixed for the new-moon after vernal equinox (Schlegel on Bamay.
i. 19, 2). Probably bealteine were lighted at this new-moon of spring.