(515) The Sturgeon moon

    One of my friends taught me that the August full moon is called the Sturgeon moon. She texted me, "It is very beautiful. Look up the sky now to see the August full moon." I did so and took a picture of the moon. A very bad phot, there was an only white blur spot in the dark sky.

  What is sturgeon? My electronic dictionary says sturgeon is fish whose roe is caviar. Who calls the August full moon "the Sturgeon moon"? I got very interested in the name. Immediately I googled the word and I knew American Indians called twelve full moons of a year by their own special names. I also got cute illustrations of them at a site.

https://weathernews.jp/s/topics/202008/030265/

  I have a book published 1997, HOBMOK and Other Writings on Indians, written by Lydia Maria Child. I bought this book around 2004 at a secondhand bookstore in Japan. I knew this book is about American Indians but I stopped at the very beginning of introduction of this book and gave up reading.

Hobomok and Other Writings on Indians (American Women Writers Series)

• 作者: Child, Lydia Maria Francis
• 出版社/メーカー: Rutgers Univ Pr
• 発売日: 1986/04/01
• メディア: ペーパーバック

  Hobomok, A Tale of Early Times is the provocative story of an upper-class white woman who married an Indian chief, has a child, then leaves him―with the child―for another man. This novel, originally published in 1824, is a powerful first among antipatriarchal and antiracist novels in American literature.

  The Sturgeon moon encouraged me to challenge this book again. But this time, first of all, I tried to search for the words of moon from cover to cover. I fortunately found a word of "Sturgeon moon" in the chapter XII. Then I read only this chapter.

The Sturgeon moon

  "Hobomok," interrupted Mr. Conant, who entered at this moment, "it is a pity you were not out with you bow, forasmuch1) as a fine deer just ran through the settlement2)."

  "There's a tribe of 'em, out on the plains3) to night," answered the Indian. "Their tracks4) are thick as flies5) in the Sturgeon moon." Sagamore John's men are coming out with―with―" and unable to think of the English word, he pointed to the candle.

  "Oh, they are coming out by torch-light," exclaimed Mary, "as Hobomok says the western Indians do. How I do wish I could see them hunt by torch-light."

1) forasmuch: in view of the fact that.

2) settlement: a colony, especially in its early stages.

3) plain: a large area of flat land with few trees.

4) track: a mark or a series of marks left by a person, animal, or thing in passing.

5) thick as flies: it's an idiomatic expression, it means "to be very abundant."

In the previous page, there are other Indian moons.

The cold moon

  It was in the middle of the "cold moon", by which name he used to designate January, that he arrived in Salem, on one of his numerous visits, bringing with him some skins of the beautiful grey fox of the Mississippi.

The moon of flowers, the hunting moon

  "One warrior came among us in the moon of flowers, and spread his blanket with us through the hunting moon. I talked with him, like as with the Yengees. He told big stories about his tribe; but he say Great Spirit lay between us, and his back bone so high, make foot of the Indian weary.

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