SNEEZING PERFORMANCES 229 



This incident served to remind me of a friend I 

 once had in London whose sneezing performances 

 were the most tremendous I have ever known; the 

 whole house would be startled at his sneeze, as if 

 a barrel of gunpowder had exploded. It also re- 

 minded me of other facts concerning these surprising 

 little tempests or "earthquakes" the organism is 

 subject to, and how the sneeze came to be super- 

 stitiously regarded as a sort of reminder that sudden 

 death might fall upon us at any moment. At all 

 events, we find the custom of exclaiming "God help 

 you!" or some such words, when your neighbour 

 sneezes very widespread on the earth. It was uni- 

 versal among the natives of South America where 

 I was bred — I mean the Spanish natives. 



One day in my boyhood I was left alone in a room 

 with an old native landowner neighbour of ours — 

 a big, tremendously dignified old man with a white 

 beard, who inspired me with awe. He suddenly began 

 sneezing, sneeze following sneeze to the number of 

 about twenty or more, and after each one he cried, 

 "Thank you! thank you!" Then, when the fit was 

 over, he glared angrily at me and asked why I had 

 kept silent. Through my not having said "Jesus 

 help you," he might have expired! Perhaps the super- 

 stition was inherited from older non-Christian peoples. 



A curious thing is that the manner of it — the char- 

 acter of the sneeze and the noise it produces — should 

 differ so greatly in individuals. The animals of any 

 species all sneeze in the same way, and it may be so 

 with savages and primitive folk; but we have infinite 



