Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1876-04-06
atonement for his wrong.loing, walked
smeekly behind, carrying the luggage. =
QUEER sUPERsTITIoNs.


------>% 9 - = = '-.siRs
!. r. QUEER SUGGESTIONS.
FrS&f the cor,hm Masa.tne. ~
The belief in spirits affords the best
explanation for set of customs no less
curious than disagreeable and ridicu.
lous. We allude to the worldwide SUI
perstitiOns connected with splitting
and sneezing. Many Englishmen spit
if they meet white horse, q squirt
ing man. or a single magpie, or If, In
sadvertently, they step under d ladder,
or wash their hands in the same basin
with friend. In Lancashire, boys
spit over their fingers before begin
ming to fight; travellers on leaving
home spit OIL - stone and throw. it
away; market people spit on the first
money they receive in the day.
Swedish peasants spit thrice II they
cross water after dark, and even the
esthetic Athenian used to spit if he
met q mailman. So the savage New
Zealand priest spits on the two sticks
which, according IS one Of them falls
uppermost, are to foreshow the re-
suit of a coming battle. Indeed, this
unpleasant habit seems "a universal
charm for bringing good luck or avert
ing bad; but for what conceivable rea-
son than that the mouth was once re-
garded rs the portal by which evil spir-
it's got into man, and by which alone
they could be forced to make their
exit! The Messalians used to make
splitting and nose.blowing part of
their religion, for they hoped thereby
to free themselves from the demons
with which they fancied the air to be
full.
This single case contains, probably,
the key to all the others. But why
should sneezing be SO generally re.
gavded as bad omen, and one to be
averted, if possible, by fluctuations
and blessings? One explanation is, that
as it was the sign of returning conva-
lescence during the plague at Athens,
congratulations were offered when the
crisis was passed; another, that during
a great plague that ragged in Germany
in the sixth century, and began its IA
tai course with a fit of sneezing, it was
usual to exclaim, "May God help you
nOw,' as soon as the sad death-signal
was heard. But the custom is of far
wider extent and older lineage than
such ordinations imply, and the only
possible hypothesis is one that adapts
itself to all races and all times. In
New Zealand a mother repeats a charm
when her child sneezes, lest any evil
result in consequence, and English
nurses do just the same. In the Meth
erlands, a sneeze gives witch power
over person, unless some one invoke
a blessing from heaven, and in these
facts, probably, lies the real explana-
ton. For, taking into account that
every bodily arrangement is regarded
by savages rs possession by evil spirits,
and that sneeZing is always the precur-
sor of those temporary bodily derange.
ments, often very severe, which we
know as ''colds,'' may it not be that in
those early times, when to precede is
the same as to cause, a sneezing fit was
set down as 4 sign or cause of such a
possession, and charms were employed
to counterfeit it's effects.
If a cold was ever held to he a be.
witchment, we can understand the use
of charms and blessings at the earliest
stage of the premonitory symptoms.
As all involuntary act. a sneeze would,
like all other natural phenomena, he a
portent significant of. and entailing, a
series of consequences; and in course
of time. as men improved in observa.
ton and distinctions, it would grow to
be even suspicious under certain cir.
cumstances. Thus III our own country.
it is a good sign OH some days of the
week, but bad one on others; and in
Scotland all infant is under fairy spells
until it sneezes, a belief apparently
connected with the absurd idea of the
incapacity of idiots to sneeze. III
Greece, also, the distinctions drawn
about it raised sneezing to all art; fol-
while it was unlucky in the afternoon.
or when food was being cleared away
or if it occurred three times, or more
than four. or OIL the left-hand side; il
it occurred among persons in DELHI
Grafton, or two or four times, or in the
morning, or on the right-hand side, il
was accounted a lucky omen. We read
that Themistocles, by judicious
sneezc on his right-hand side, per
suaded his soldiers to fight, and Keno
ph0n by q similar act in the middle OF
a speech was elected general. And on
another occasion, sneeZe from a
linesman just before a battle was con
sidered so ominous that public prayers
We're deemed necessary in conse'
Quence.