I45A. Don't look at the moon, the star.
.11.16.20.23.26.-.29.31.-.36.39.41.42.46.48.49.52.
The one who points with a finger or gazes intently at the moon or star will become ill (die), or the finger pointed at will rot or dry out.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Isubu [if a woman conceives a full moon, she shows the baby she was born to the Month, saying, "This is your grandfather"; children are not told to point at the moon; otherwise the month-old grandfather will cut it off]: Keller 1903:60-62.
Western Europe. Germans (Braunschweig) [you can't point your finger at the rainbow and stars]: Grimm 1883:732; Germans (Mecklenburg) [whoever points at stars with a finger, God will prick his eye out]: Bartsch 1880, No. 967 :201; Germans (Upper Palatinate): Schönwerth 1858, No. 4 [no finger pointing at the moon], 10 [no finger pointing at stars]: 61, 69; English (north of England) [counts unhappy to count or point to stars]: Henderson 1879:119 {this page appears in the index at the end of the book; it doesn't have this information, but it's probably just a confused page number}.
Micronesia-Polynesia. Easter Island [Renga woman has a daughter, Nuahine, she is in her first period, her mother brings her food to the cave; on a full moon she goes swimming, sees a young man; this is the Month, the brother of the Sun; she agrees to go beyond marry him; he takes her to the moon; she is immortal there, but old; spins the threads of people's fate; when he breaks the thread, a person dies; you can't look at the full moon]: Fedorova 1978, No. 6.1:76-78.
South Asia. Sora (Ghajapati District) [informant Enam Gomang, Christian, d. Serango; One group of spots on the moon is the banyan tree, where monkeys live. Another group of spots is another small tree. Monkeys periodically jump from a larger tree to a smaller one. When the moon is full, if you look closely, you can see black spots moving across the moon. These are monkeys jumping from tree to tree; informant Srinivas Gomango, Christian, d. Nouagada: Anyone who sees a monkey jumping on a moon tree will die, so they don't look at the moon]: Krylova, Renkovskaya 2017, field materials.
China - Korea. Chinese (Sichuan): Zhou Yang et al. 1998b, No. 10 (u. Wanyuan) [A long time ago, there was no sun or moon in the sky, and the earth was dark and cold. There was one immortal who had a son and a daughter. They decided to make the world a bright place and told their father about it, but he did not agree. Then my brother stole his father's jewels - a needle and a knife. The brother and sister decided they would go up to heaven, use their magic to illuminate the world, and they would shine one by one. When the sister ran away from home, she forgot to get dressed, and then her brother gave her a needle to keep it with her, and people did not dare to look at her. My brother took a knife for himself. My sister was the first to go to heaven, began to shine during the day, and people called her the Sun. The brother got up second, and because he had a sharp knife, if people pointed at him with their hand, he could cut his ear. People started calling him "Grandpa Moon". When their father found out, he swore to bring them back and sent General Heavenly Dog to pick them up. He quickly caught up with them, and when they started fighting, people began to beat gongs and drums to help the Sun and the Moon. Heavenly Dog saw such support and retreated. Therefore, people believe that "the heavenly dog eats the month" or "the sun is devoured by the sky dog"]: 30, 31 (note) [because at the beginning and end of the lunar month the moon takes the shape of the sickle, children were not allowed to point fingers at it, otherwise the moon deity could injure the ear - wounds appeared in the auricle that oozed in blood].
The Balkans. Hungarians: Kálmány 1893 (Szeged and surroundings) [you can't point at stars with your finger or talk about them blasphemously; otherwise misfortune will happen]: 27; Zsigmond 2003 (in Romania) [point to star to die]: 427.
Central Europe. Poles: Laurinkene 2002 [you can't point your finger at the Month and the Sun; your finger will become stiff, objects will fall out of your hands]: 365; Dorota 1989 (Silesia) [you can't point your finger at the stars, you can gouge out God's eye]: 16; Bartmiński, Niebrzegowska 1996 [you can't point your finger at the stars, it may dry out and fall off]: 220; Czechs (Moravia) [pointing a finger at a star will go blind, a star will go blind will fall into his eye; or his finger will fall off]: Grohmann 2010:47 (Grohmann 2015:54); Russians (Vladimirskaya) [you can't point your finger at the stars and count the stars; count yours or point at it, she will go out or fall off, a person will die]: Dobrovolskaya 2011b: 23; Eastern Ukrainians (Kherson) [when a young month appears, you should not point your finger at it; "young as a bull"]: Hawks 1894:4.
Caucasus - Asia Minor. Kalmyks [it was considered a sin to count stars and point fingers at them]: Basayev 2004:10; Terek Cossacks (Naurskaya) [pointing your finger at the moon is a sin and, in addition, can happen nail eater]: Vostrikov 1907:3-4; Nogais [you can't point your finger at the moon, stars and sun; an old woman on the moon can go down and punish]: Kapaev 2012:16; mountainous Dagestan [was considered a great sin point at the moon]: Hajiyev 1991:157; Armenians: Bagriy 1930 (3) [you can't point at a star with your finger, you'll get sick; if you accidentally point, you should bite this finger]: 126; Tchéraz 1893 [on the Sun and You can't point your finger at the moon and look for a long time]: 823.
Baltoscandia. The Livs [you can't point your finger at the sun, moon, rainbow, or rot]: Loorits 1998 (1): 41; Estonians: ERA H II 46, 227 (38), < Haljala [you can't go to the moon point with your hand, your hand will rot], ERA RKM II 413, 561 (2), < Puhja [you can't point your hand at the moon, the moon will pull towards you]; Lithuanians: Kerbelite 2001 [man points his finger at the sun/moon/rainbow - percunas kills him/the person dies]: 458; Laurinkene 2002 [there was not enough water in the bathhouse; one woman, as she was naked, went to get water with a rocker arm; said to the Month, pointing her finger at him that she was more light than him; during this month he pulled her upstairs; in the Month there is a man with a rocker arm on his shoulders; old people don't allow you to point fingers at the Month]: 365; Vaiškūnas 2006 [you can't go to the moon point your finger - it will dry out, then you will cut it off soon, or the whole hand will be paralyzed; pointing your finger can get into God's eye; the Month can be dragged away when a person falls asleep]: 175; Latvians [if you point your finger in the sun or a month, your finger will rot]: Laurinkene 2019:313.
Volga - Perm. Komi: Rochev 1984, No. 99 [The moon began to go down with a tub to pick up the children looking at her; Bread and Salt began to tell her that people burn them, throw them, etc., and they are not offended anyway], approx. 99 [children are told not to look at the moon, or she will go down with a tub, lift it up to her]: 108, 168; Marie: Akzorin 1991, No. 43 [the girl went to get water, said another, Here the moon appeared; she did not tell her to point to the moon with a finger; the moon saw and lifted that girl towards her]: 87; Potanin 1883 [on a full moon, you can't point your finger for a month, otherwise she will swallow it like a girl who went to get water; whoever accidentally points out needs a finger bite]: 777; Chuvash [you can't point a finger at a shooting star]: Ashmarin 1984:25 (=2003:299); Mordovians [you can't look at the moon for long; Ivan the Baptist neglected this prohibition, Shkai (supreme god) removed his head; on the moon he can be seen Shkay standing at the table without a head]: Devyatkina 1998:126.
Turkestan. Kazakhs [spots on the moon are old; you can't look at the moon for a long time so that the old woman does not have time to count her eyelashes; then a person will die]: Chuloshnikov 1924:242.
Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Altaians [leaving deer hooves to dogs, tendon guards, becoming a cat, the guy enters the girl's chamber, regains his appearance; they have a son; when leaving, the wife does not tell you to open one barn; husband opens, 77 seven-headed Tielven's are sitting there; he gives them water, they lock him and his son in the barn; the wife comes back, kills the Tielven, puts the latter on the moon; the children are told that you can't reach out to the moon; one held out, T. went down, grabbed him; the boy tried to hold on to the willow; you can see seven-headed T. on the moon, a boy with a willow in front of him]: Kandarakova 1988:120-122; Khakas [You can't point to the moon with your hand; if you did it by accident, I must say, "I did not point, but the block showed"]: Butanayev 2003:46.
Western Siberia. Mansi [the kids laugh at the moon, make faces, point at it with their fingers; the moon goes down to pick them up, the grandmother hides the children in a bag; salt and cauldron tell the moon they are used for cooking but they are not angry with people; the Moon is leaving]: Lukina 1990, No. 109:296; Kets [you can't talk badly about the Month, laugh at it or point your finger at it (your finger hurts); on the Month, you can see a Ket girl with tuyas (var.: Russian woman with buckets), who teased him in this way and punished by being dragged to him with a snag she clung to]: Alekseenko 1976:84; northern Selkups: Golovnev 1995 [you should not point your finger at the moon - she will get sick; the girl went to get water, began to point her finger for the Month, tease him, saying, "How do you live there? I live well, I eat fatty meat"; A girl grabbed a month, she tried to hold on to the talnic bush; visible on the moon, a bucket in one hand and a bush in the other (Western 1988)]: 330-331; Pelikh 1998 [children are not told point at the moon with your finger: either the finger falls off or the blind bird (the embodiment of the moon, steals girls) will fly]: 51-55.
Eastern Siberia. Northeastern Yakuts (Verkhoyansky): Gorokhov 1882 (the place of recording is not specified; most likely, Verkhoyansky District, where N.S. Gorokhov was born and lived) ["Look at the moon: two human figures on the rocker arms carry a bucket of water. And what happened was that brother and sister went to get water and looked at the full moon, which took them for themselves. Therefore, it is forbidden for children to look at the full moon"]: 39; Khudyakov 1969 [it's a sin to look at the moon for a long time; a boy and a girl with a rocker on their shoulders looked at each other for a long time, the fire of their eyes awakened the sleeping lunar spirit, he took them to him]: 279.
Japan. Japanese (written texts and ethnography) [in Taketori Monogatari, one of the household members of the old man who sheltered Kaguya-hime tells her, looking at the moon, "It is forbidden to see the face of the moon"; prohibition Japanese historian and ethnographer Matsumae Takeshi testifies to the third or sixth day of the month]: Yermakova 2017:19.
SV Asia. Chukchi: Bogoras 1902 [a person looking at the moon, especially a full one, will go crazy or be carried away by the Month]: 592; Bogoraz 1939 [people who look at the month for too long may lose their mind or even be completely insane carried away from the ground; the month has a lasso that it can catch and drag every person]: 22-23.
Subarctic. Inhalic [if you point your finger at a lunar eclipse, your hand will rot]: Osgood 1959:52; inner tlingits [if the baby looks at the moon, he will start crying continuously and demanding the moon, as he did Raven demanding the moon from his grandfather to play]: McClelland 1975 (1): 78.
NW Coast. Hyda (Masset) [the woman pointed her finger at the star, mocked her; the stars dragged her to the sky, placed her on the roof to fry in the chimney; her female brothers brought her back, replacing her a wooden figure screaming like a human being; the stars came down to look for her, the brothers ran, throwing red paint; the stars wasted time picking her up, stopped pursuing her; the woman began to point her finger to the moon, she did it when she went to get water; she thought someone was sitting in a well, she pointed her finger at this man; at home she saw the same face in a bucket of water; splashed out the water, returned to the well, again I saw the same face, did not drink; at night I felt thirsty, returned to the well; the big man grabbed her hand; she turned to the full moon, showed her tongue; she was dragged up, she grabbed her hand saral bush; now with a bucket and holding on to the bush, it is visible on the moon]: Swanton 1908a, No. 28:450-452; Tsimshian (R. Ness) [woman points her finger at a star and is pulled up; finds herself on the roof of chimney; she was rescued, returned to the ground; then she points her finger at the month and at its reflection; The month takes her to heaven when she carries a bush of salal-berries; she can be seen on the lunar disk with by a bush and with a bucket in hand]: Boas 1916:864.
Plains. Teton [Teton doesn't like to look at the full moon because one day a woman carrying a baby looked for a long time and lost consciousness]: Dorsey 1889:137; 1894:467.
Big Pool. If you point your finger at the moon, your finger will rot. Western Shoshones: Steward 1941:267; Northern Shoshones, Bunnock: Steward 1943b:354; Goshiyute: Steward 1943b:354; Stewart 1942:324; Mescalero, Hicarilla ( ollero) [if you point your finger at the stars, warts will appear, but you can point your thumb with your thumb]: Gifford 1940, No. 2290, 2291:61.
Mesoamerica Sierra Poluca [if you point your finger at a shooting star, incurable chiryas will appear on your hand]: Foster 1945a: 187.