Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-03-03
SUPERsTITI0Ns REGAR DING SPLITTING
AND SNEEZING.

| 49, - ~--'
/ AND SNEEzING.
The COrnhill Magazine has the follow ing
The belief in evil spirits affords the b,ss
explanation for a set of customs no les
curious than disagreeable and ridiculous
We allude to the worldwide superstition
connected with splitting and sneezing
Many Engllshmen spit if they meet {
!, white horse, a squirting man or a single
maybe, or If, inadvertently, they step I'M
der ladder, or wash their hands in thu
same basin with a friend. In Lancashire
boys spit over their fingers before begin
ming to fight; travellers on leaving home
spit on a stone and throw it away; market
people spit on the first money they receive
| in the day. Swedish peasants spit thrice
if they cross water after dark, and ever
the aesthetic Athenian used to spit if he
| met mailman. So the savage New Zeal
and priest splits on the two sticks, which
according as one of them falls uppermost
are to foreshadow the result of coming
battle. Indeed, this unpleasant habit
seems universal charm for bringing goo(
luck or averting bad, but for what con-
ceivable reason than that the mouth was
once regarded as the portal by which ev
spirits got into a 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, fol
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-
garded as bad omen, and one to he avert
ed, if possible, by Fluctuations and bless
ings? One explanation is that, as it was
the sign Of returning convalescenee dur
ing the plague at Athens, congratulations
were offered when the crisis was past;
another. that during great plague that
ragged in Germany in the sixth century,
and began its fatal 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 explanations 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 child sneezes, lest any evil result
in consequence, and English nurses dojust
the same. In the Netherlands sneeze
gives witch, power over a person, unless
some one invoke blessing from heaven,
and in these facts probably lies the real ex-
PLANTATION. For, taking into account that
every bodily arrangement is regarded by
savages as possession by evil spirits, and
that sneezing is always the precursor OF
these temporary bodily arrangements, Of
ten very severe, which we know as ''colds, d
may it not be, that in those early times,
when to precede is the same as cause, a
sneezing fit was set down as the sign OF
cause of such a possession, and charms
were used to counterfeit it's effects. II 6
cold was ever held to be bewitchment
we can understand the use of charms and
blessings at the earliest stage of the pre-
monitory symptoms. AS an involuntary
act, sneeze would, like all other natura.
phenomena, be portent significant Of, and
entailing, series Of consequences; and in
course of time, as men improvee in obser.
walton and distinctions, it would grow tc
be even suspicious under certain circum
stances. Thus in our own country it is a
good sign on some days of the week, but
a bad one on the others; and in Scotland
an infant is under fairy spells until il
sneezes, a belief apparently connected with
the absurd idea of the incapacity Of idiots
to sneeze. In Greece, also, the distinctions
drawn about it raised sneezing to all art
for while it was unlucky in the afternoon
or when food was being cleared away, OF
if it occurred three times, or more than
four, OF on the left hand side; if it oc-
Cured among persons in elaboration, Oh
two or four times, OF in the morning, OF ON
the right hand side, it was accounted a
lucky omen. We read that Themistocles,
by a judicious sneeze on the right hand
side, persuaded his soldiers to fight, and
Xenophon, by similar act in the middle
of speech, was elected general. And on
another occasion sneeze from a linesman
just before battle was considered so ON
nous that public prayers were deemed me-
cessary in consequence.