The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-DayChamberlain, Alexander Francis
Science
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day
Chamberlain, Alexander Francis
Child rearing; Children -- Folklore; Folklore and children
In compensation for so ungracious a distinction, perhaps, the religion
of Zoroaster, the ancient faith of Persia, teaches that, on the other
side of death, the soul is received by its good deeds in the form of a
beautiful maiden who conducts it through the three heavens to Ahura (the
deity of good), and it is refreshed with celestial food (470. II. 421).
That children should be brought into close relationship with the stars
and other celestial bodies is to be expected from the _milieu_ of
folk-life, and the feeling of kinship with all the phenomena of nature.
_Moon-Children_.
In his exhaustive essay on _Moon Lore_, Rev. Mr. Harley tells us
that in the Scandinavian mythology, Mâni, the moon, "once took up two
children from the earth, Bill and Hiuki, as they were going from the
well of Byrgir, bearing on their shoulders the bucket Soeg, and the pole
Simul," and placed them in the moon, "where they could be seen from the
earth." The modern Swedish folk-lore represents the spots on the moon as
two children carrying water in a bucket, and it is this version of the
old legend which Miss Humphrey has translated (468. 24-26). Mr. Harley
cites, with approval, Rev. S. Baring-Gould's identification of Hiuki and
Bill, the two moon-children, with the Jack and Jill of the familiar
nursery rhyme:--
"Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after."
According to Mr. Duncan, the well-known missionary to certain of the
native tribes of British Columbia, these Indians of the far west have a
version of this legend: "One night a child of the chief class awoke and
cried for water. Its cries were very affecting--'Mother, give me to
drink!' but the mother heeded not. The moon was affected and came down,
entered the house, and approached the child, saying, 'Here is water from
heaven: drink.' The child anxiously laid hold of the pot and drank the
draught, and was enticed to go away with the moon, its benefactor. They
took an underground passage till they got quite clear of the village,
and then ascended to heaven" (468. 35, 36). The story goes on to say
that "the figure we now see in the moon is that very child; and also the
little round basket which it had in its hand when it went to sleep
appears there."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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