_Sneezing._--"The custom of blessing persons when they sneeze," says
Brand, "has, without doubt, been derived to the Christian world, where
it generally prevails, from the time of heathenism." In addition to the
interesting notice of the prevalence of this custom in Europe, and many
remote parts of Asia and Africa, given by Brand, I find traces of it
amongst the American tribes at the period of the Spanish conquest. In
1542, when Hernando de Soto, the famous conquest-actor of Florida, had
an interview with the Cacique Guachoya, the following curious incident
occurred:--
"In the midst of their conversation, the Cacique happened to
sneeze. Upon this, all his attendants bowed their heads, opened
and closed their arms; and making their signs of veneration,
saluted their prince with various phrases of the same purport:
'May the sun guard you,' 'may the sun be with you,' 'may the sun
shine upon you,' 'defend you,' 'prosper you,' and the like; each
uttered the phrase that came first to his mind, and for a short
time there was a universal murmuring of these compliments."--_The
Conquest of Florida under Hernando de Soto_, by Theodore Irving,
vol. ii. p. 161.
Whence could the natives of the New World have derived a custom so
strikingly similar to that which the ancients record?