| . | Lithuanian Ethnoastronomy II. MOON The Moon - the brightest and the most impressive heavenly body in the nocturnal sky was called Mėnulis, Mėnuo, Mėnesis. The words mėnuo, mėnesis also stand for the measure of the calendar - a month. These names of the Moon are considered straightforward derivatives from the Indo-European protolanguage: *menes-, *men(n)s 'Moon' and 'month' probably stem from *me- 'to measure'. It must be separately marked that Lithuanians residing in Byelorussia in the ethnic areas of Lithuania population in some places refer to the Moon as Dievaitis (in dialect Dievaicis) jaunas dievas, dievo sūnus 'young god, the son of God'. Often the word is uttered in the diminutive or endearing form. In Pelesa they say: Dievaiciulis (recorded by the author in 1991, also cf. LKŽ K), Dievaitukas (LKZ II 515). In Radūnai area: Dievaitulis (LKŽ II 515), Devaitulis, Deveitulis, Deveitulis (TD IV 171, 178). Lithuanians in Pelesa settlement (Varanavas region, Gardin area) and the Lithuanians of the neighborhood speak of the Moon in these terms till now. The same word is used for the time measure a month. Indigenous people hold that the word Mėnulis was not known to these places. It is believed that it penetrated into the colloquial speech from the written sources and the schools. We may assume that the Moon was referred to as Dievaitis on a much wider territory form the remaining prayers addressed to the newly risen young moon. In these the Moon is referred to as jaunikaitis 'young man', karalaitis 'young king' but also as Dievaitėlis 'Dear God', Dangaus Dievaitis 'Heavenly God', Sūnus Dievo 'God's Son', Dievas Sūnus 'God Son', in the archaic traditional Lithuanian polyphonic song recorded in 1937 the young moon and Dieva sūnelis 'the young son of the God' (Slaviūnas, 1958, 194). In the prayers and narratives the Moon occasionally is referred to as Dievas 'God' (Balys 1951, 19, 20). These facts should be considered the remains of the prior sanctifying of the Moon. Very few narratives about the nature of the Moon are recorded. They are sparse and fragmented. It is said: Mėnulis yra žemė (The Moon is the Earth), "tokia pat žemė [kaip ir mūsų] ir ten gyvena žmon" (The Earth like ours and there also live people), also kažkoks akmuo (some sort of a stone), "sustingęs kamuolys" (a frozen ball) or else užšalusi Saulė (The frozen Sun), occasionally naktinė Saulė (The night Sun), nakties šviesa (The light of the night), naktinė Dievo Lempa (the night lamp of God), Dievo akis God's eye. It has been considered that the Moon is the Sun's assistant Saulės pagalbininkas, that shines in place of the Sun at night or that the Moon's light is big fire burning in the God's palace and the light shining through the windows of the palace: starts. There also is a record that the Moon is the House of the Devil ("velnio namai"), because it is the place where the Devil lives. Before the war in Šiluva the following story was recorded: Devil borrowed a sieve from Mary. He didn't want to carry it to the heaven so he threw the sieve up and the Moon appeared. When it is the full moon on the surface of the moon it is often seen a woman or a girl with the yoke carrying water buckets, a face of a human, Cain piercing his brother Abel with the fork or a wizard Tvardauskas whom the devil carried into the hell but lost in the Moon.
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