Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 6.8.2

6.8.2

In regard to astronomy, the Gentiles have their tables, according to which they foretell eclipses, not perhaps with the minute exactness of European astronomers, but still with great accuracy. They reason, however, in the same ridiculous way on the lunar as on the solar eclipse, believing that the obscuration is caused by a black, filthy, and mischievous Deüta, named Rach, who takes possession of the moon and fills her with infection. They also maintain, much on the same ground, that the moon is four hundred thousand coses, that is, above fifty thousand leagues, higher than the sun; that she is a luminous body, and that we receive from her a certain vital liquid secretion, which collects principally in the brain, and, descending thence as from its source into all the members of the body, enables them to exercise their respective functions. They believe likewise that the sun, moon, and stars are all so many deutas; that the darkness of night is caused by the sun retiring behind the Someire, an imaginary mountain placed in the centre of the earth, in form like an inverted sugar loaf, and an altitude of I know not how many thousand leagues: so that they never enjoy the light of day but when the sun leaves the back of this mountain.