good space there lingered the murmur of these words among them, whereat the governor wondering said to the gentlemen and captains with him, "Do you not see that all the world is one?" This matter was well noted among the Spaniards, that among so barbarous a people should be used the same ceremonies, or greater, than among those who hold themselves to be very civilized. Whence it may be believed that this manner of salutation is natural among all nations, and not caused by a pestilence, as is vulgarly said,' &c.[1]
In Asia and Europe the sneezing superstition extends through a wide range of race, age, and country.[2] Among the passages relating to it in the classic ages of Greece and Rome, the following are some of the most characteristic, — the lucky sneeze of Telemachos in the Odyssey;[3] the soldier's sneeze and the shout of adoration to the god which rose along the ranks, and which Xenophon appealed to as a favourable omen;[4] Aristotle's remark that people consider a sneeze as divine (τóν ηèν πταρμòν θεòν ηγούμεθα είναι),but not a cough,[5] &c.; the Greek epigram on the man with the long nose, who did not say Ζεύ σώσον when he sneezed, for the noise was too far off for him to hear;[6] Petronius Arbiter's mention of the custom of saying 'Salve!' to one who sneezed;[7] and Pliny's question, 'Cur sternutamentis salutamus?' apropos of which he remarks that even Tiberius Cæsar, that saddest of men, exacted this observant
- ↑ Garcilaso de la Vega, 'Hist, de la Florida,' vol. iii. ch. xli.
- ↑ Among dissertations on the subject, see especially Sir Thos. Browne, 'Pseudodoxia Epidemica' (Vulgar Errors), book iv. chap. ix.; Brand, 'Popular Antiquities,' vol. iii. p. 119, &c.; R. G. Haliburton, 'New Materials for the History of Man.' Halifax, N. S. 1863 ; 'Encyclopædia Britannica,' (5th ed.) art. 'sneezing;' Wernsdorf, 'De Ritu Sternutantibus bene precandi.' Leipzig, 1741; see also Grimm, D. M. p. 1070, note.
- ↑ Homer, Odyss. xvii. 541.
- ↑ Xenophon, Anabasis, iii. 2, 9.
- ↑ Aristot. Problem, xxxiii. 7.
- ↑ Anthologia Græca, Brunck, vol. iii. p. 95.
- ↑ Petron. Arb. Sat. 98.
