(_For the Mirror_.)
Among the Greeks, sneezing was reckoned a good omen. The practice of
saluting the person who sneezed, existed in Africa, among nations unknown
to the Greeks and Romans. Brown, in his "Vulgar Errors," says, "We read
in Godignus, that, upon a sneeze of the emperor of Monumotata, there
passed acclamations successively through the city." The author of the
"Conquest of Peru" assures us, that the cacique of Guachoia having sneezed
in the presence of the Spaniards, the Indians of his train fell prostrate
before him, stretched forth their hands, and displayed to him the
accustomed marks of respect, while they invoked the sun to enlighten him,
to defend him, and to be his constant guard. The Romans saluted each
other on sneezing. Plutarch tells us, the genius of Socrates informed him
by sneezing, when it was necessary to perform any action. The young
Parthenis, hurried on by her passions, resolved to write to Sarpedon an
avowal of her love: she sneezes in the most tender and impassioned part
of her letter. This is sufficient for her; this incident supplies the
place of an answer, and persuades her that Sarpedon is her lover. In the
Odyssey, we are informed that Penelope, harassed by the vexatious
courtship of her suitors, begins to curse them all, and to pour forth
vows for the return of Ulysses. Her son Telemachus interrupts her by a
loud sneeze. She instantly exults with joy, and regards this sign as an
assurance of the approaching return of her husband. Xenophon was
haranguing his troops; when a soldier sneezed in the moment he was
exhorting them to embrace a dangerous but necessary resolution. The whole
army, moved by this presage, determined to pursue the project of their
general; and Xenophon orders sacrifices to Jupiter, the preserver. This
religious reverence for sneezing, so ancient and so universal even in the
time of Homer, always excited the curiosity of the Greek philosophers and
the rabbins. These last spread a tradition, that, after the creation of
the world, God made a law to this purport, that every man should sneeze
but once in his life, and that at the same instant he should render up
his soul into the hands of his Creator, without any preceding
indisposition. Jacob obtained an exemption from the common law, and the
favour of being informed of his last hour. He sneezed, and did not die;
and this sign of death was changed into a sign of life. Notice of this
was sent to all the princes of the earth; and they ordained, that in
future sneezing should be accompanied with _forms of blessings_, and vows
for the persons who sneezed. Thus the custom of _blessing persons who
sneeze_ is of higher antiquity than some authors suppose, for several
writers affirm that it commenced in the year 750, under Pope Gregory the
Great, when a pestilence occurred in which those who sneezed died; whence
the pontiff appointed a form of prayer, and a wish to be said to persons
sneezing, for averting this fatality from them. Some say Prometheus was
the first that wished well to sneezers. For further information on this
_ticklish_ subject, I refer the reader to Brand's "Observations on
Popular Antiquities." P. T. W.
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