Of Mice and the Moon

A waxing Moon rose this afternoon which coincided with my discovery of this article from the Clinton Morning Age, Clinton, Iowa, March 4, 1904:

"A curious Indian legend was told to some people in Omaha by a full blooded Sioux who lived at the Pine Ridge agency.

He said the belief was that every time a new moon appeared it was a signal for all the mice in the country to gather themselves together in one spot. When they assembled they then separated into four great armies. One army went to the north, another to the south, a third to the east and a fourth to the west. These armies of mice traveled until they reached the point where from the place of starting the heavens seemed to touch the earth. Then they climbed up the sky until they came to the moon, which, by this time was full.

All of the four armies then commenced nibbling Luna, and when they had eaten her all up the mice would scamper back down the heavens to the earth and wait for her to show herself again, when the journey and the nibbling would be repeated by the mice, and this is what the Indians of early days believed was the cause of the moon growing old and finally disappearing." Know that.