The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-03-23
SupersIitions Regarding Splitting and
SneezIDgI

The COrnhiU Magazine has the following:
The belief in evil spirits affords the best ex-
PLANTATION for a set of customs DO less curious
than dIsagreeable an i ridiculous. We allude
to the worldwide superstitions connected
with splitting and sneezing. Many English
men spit it they meet white horse, a
squirting man or single magpie, or if, in
advertently, they step under a ladder, or
wash their hands in the same BASIN with a
friend. In Lancashire boys spit over their
fingers before beginning to fight; travellers
on leaving home spit on stone and throw
it away; market people spit on the first
money they receive in the day. Swedish
peasants spit three times if they cross
water after dark, and even the aesthetic
spit if they met a mailman. So the savage
New Zealand priest spits on the two sticks,
which, according as one of them falls upper
most, are to foreshow the result of coming
battle. Indeed, this unpleasant habit seems
a universal charm for bringing good luck
or averting bad, but for what conceivable
reason than that the mouth was once re-
garded as the portal by which evil spirits
got into a man and by which alore they
could be forced to make their exit2 The
Messalians used to make splitting and nose
blowing u 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
sneezlng be so generally regarded as a bad
omen, and one to be averted, if possible, by
fluctuations and blessing9 One explanation
is that, as it was the sign of returning con-
valescence during the plague at Athens,
congratulations were offered when the crisis
was past; another, that during a great
plague that ragged in Germany in the sixth
century, and began its course with fit of
sneezing, it was usual to exclaim, MAY
God help you now" rs soon as the 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 do just the same. In the
Netherlands sDeeze gives witch power
over a person, unless some one invoke a
blessing from heaven, and in these facts
probably lies the real explanation. For,
taking into account that every bodily de-
rangement is regarded by savages As posses
sion by evil spirits, and that sneezing is
always the precursor of those temporary
bodily arrangements, 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, sneezing fit was
set down as the sign or Cause of such pos
session, and charms were employed to coun-
teract its effects. II cold was ever held
to be a bewitchment, we can understand the
use OF charms aud blessings at the earliest
stage of the premonitory symptoms. As an
involuntary act, a sneeze would, like ali
other natural phenomena, be a portent sig
niicant of, and entailing, series'of conse-
auenees; and in course of time, as men i'm
proved IN observations and distinctions, il
would grow TO be even suspicious under
certain circumstances. Thus in our own
country 1t is agood sign on some days oil
the week, but a bad one on the Others; and
in Scotland an infant is under fairy spells
until It sneezes, a belief apparently con
nected with the absurd idea of the Incapac
| ity of idiots TO sneeze. In Greece, also, the
distinctions drawn about it raised sneezinp
to an art; for while it was unluckY in the
afternoon, or when food was being cleared
away, or If 1t occurred three times or NOR
/ than four, or on the left hand side; If il
occurred among persons in deIiberation, OF
/ two or -four times, or in the morning, or OF
the right band side. it was accounted
| lucky omen We read that Tl1emistocles
| by jndicious sneeze on his right hand side,
persuaded his soldiers I'd fight, and Keno
/ phon, by a similar act in the middle OF I
/ speech, was elected general And on an
ether occasion saeeze HON . linesuan jas
before battle was considered 50 ominoni
that public prayers were deemed necessAr.
in consequence. : ~ =.