Dec. 24. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



625 



Athenaeus, says Potter in his Archceologia Groeca, 

 proves that the head was esteemed holy, because 

 it was customary to swear by it, and adore as holy 

 the sneezes that proceeded from it. And Ari- 

 stotle tells us in express terms that sneezing was 

 accounted a deity : " Thv Tlrapixhv ^^hv rryov/jLeda" — 

 Archaol. Qrcec. (5th ed.), p. 338. 



" Oscitatio in iiixu letalis est, sicut 

 Sternuisse a coitu abortivum," 



Quoted from Pliny by Aulas Gellius, 

 Noct. Att. III. xvi. 24. 



Erasmus, in his Colloquies, bids one say to him 

 who sneezes, " Sit faustum ac felix," or " Servet 

 te Deus," or " Sit salutiferum," or " Bene vertat 

 Deus." 



" Quare homines sternutant ? 



" Respondetur, ut virtus expulsiva et vislva, per hoc 

 purgetur, et cerebrum a sua superfluitate purgetur, etc. 

 Etiam qui sternutat frequenter, dicitur habere forte 

 cerebrum." — Aristotdis Problemata : Amstelodami, anno 

 1690. 



Query whether from some such idea of the 

 beneficial effect of sneezing, arose the practice of 

 calling for the divine blessing on the sneezer ? 



When Themistocles was offering sacrifice, it 

 happened that three beautiful captives were 

 brought him, and at the same time the fire burnt 

 clear and bright, and a sneeze happened on the 

 right hand. Hereupon Euphrantides the sooth- 

 sayer, embracing him, predicted the memorable 

 victory which was afterwards obtained by him, &c. 



There is also mention of this custom (the ob- 

 servation of sneezing) in Homer, who has intro- 

 duced Penelope rejoicing at a sneeze of her son 

 Telemachus : 



" Oux ^p<^ay 8 jitot vlhs eirfTrrapei'" 

 Sneezing was not always a lucky omen, but 

 varied according to the alteration of circum- 

 stances — " Twv 'n-Tap/xwi' ot /xeu etVlv w(p4Ki(j.oi, ol Si 

 p\a§epoi" "Some sneezes are profitable, others 

 prejudicial" — according to the scholiast upon the 

 following passage of Theocritus, wherein he makes 

 the sneezing of the Cupids to have been an un- 

 fortunate omen to a certain lover : 



" 2</t«x'5o fji,iv fpoDTfs iireirrapov" 



If any person sneezed between midnight and 

 the following noontide it was fortunate, but from 

 noontide till midnight it was unfortunate. 



If a man sneezed at the table while they were 

 taking away, or if another happened to sneeze 

 upon his left hand, it was unlucky; if on the right 

 hand, fortunate. 



If, in the undertaking any business, two or four 

 sneezes happened, it was a lucky omen, and gave 

 encouragement to proceed ; if more than four, the 

 omen was neither good nor bad ; if one or three, 

 it was unlucky, and dehorted them from proceed- 

 ing in what they had designed. If two men were 



deliberating about any business, and both of them 

 chanced to sneeze together, it was a prosperous 

 omen. — Archceol, Grcec. (5th ed.), pp. 339, 340. 

 Francis John Scott. 

 Tewkesbury. 



The custom your correspondent Medicus al- 

 ludes to, of wishing a person " good health," after 

 sneezing, is also very common in Kussia. The 

 phrases the Russians use on these occasions are — 

 " To your good health ! " or " How do you do ?" 



J. S. A. 



Old Broad Street. 



BOOKS BURNED BY THE COMMON HANGMAN. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 272. 346.) 



To the list of these literary auto da fe's we may 

 well add the burning of Bishop Burnet's famous 

 Pastoral Letter, which was censured by the House 

 of Commons, January, 1692, and was burned by 

 the common hangman. The offence contained in 

 it was the ascribing the title of William III. to 

 the crown of England to a right of conquest. A 

 recollection of this gives additional point to the 

 irony of Atterbury in attacking Wake : 



" William the Conqueror is another of the pious 

 patterns he recommends, ' who would suffer nothing,' 

 he says, • to be determined in any ecclesiastical causes 

 without leave and authority first had from him.' .... 

 His present majesty is not William the Conqueror; 

 and can no more by our constitution rule absolutely 

 either in Church or State than he would if he could : 

 his will and pleasure is indeed a law to all his sub- 

 jects ; not in a conquering sense, but because his will 

 and pleasure is only that the laws of our country 

 should be obeyed, which he came over on purpose to 

 rescue,'and counts it his great prerogative to mahitain ; 

 and contemns therefore, I doubt not, such sordid 

 flattery as would measure the extent of his supremacy 

 from the Conqueror's claim." — Atterbury's Rights, 

 Powers, and Privileges of Convocation, pp. 158 — 160. 



Atterbury never misses a hit at Burnet when 

 he can conveniently administer one, and the 

 Bishop endeavours to smile even while he winces : 



" He writes with just and due respect of the king 

 and the present constitution. This has come so seldom 

 from that corner that it ought to be the more con- 

 sidered. I will not give that scope to jealousy as to 

 suspect that this was an artifice ; but accept it sin- 

 cerely," &c. — The Bishop of Sarum's Reflectiom on 

 the Rights, Powers, S^c, p. 4. 



W. Frasee. 

 Tor-Mohun. 



The following may come under the list wanted 

 by Balliolensis : 



" The covenant itself, together with the act for 

 erecting the high court of justice, that for subscribing 

 the engagement, and that for declaring England a 



