like the Greek poets, as ominous in love. The profligate Petronius mentions it as a custom which prevailed in his day. "Gniton," said he, "full of collected wind, sneezed three times so violently that he shook the bed on which he was lying; when Eumolpus, roused by the motion, turned his head and said, God save you, Gniton!'"+ Apuleius also notices the practice: "When a certain person frequently sneezed," said he, "he was prayed for in the usual manner." ‡ The nature of the omen was determined, as among the Greeks, by the circumstances. It was favourable or unfavourable according to the various hours of the day or the seasons of the year, the signs of the Zodiac, or the right or the left hand. If a man sneezed getting up from his bed or from his seat, he considered it necessary to return to his posture, and lie or sit down again, particularly if he was stooping to tie his sandals at the time; and if at an entertainment any of the company sneezed while the dishes were being removed, it was considered a sad omen, to be averted only by replacing the dishes and renewing the feast.

It is certainly a fact not a little singular, that the importance thus attached by the Jews, Greeks, and

*Hoc ut dixit, Amor, sinistram ut ante

Dextram Sternuit approbationem.

Cat. Epigr. 45.

+ Ad quem motum Eumolpus conversus, salvere Gnitona Jubet.Petron. lib. 4.

Solito sermone salutem ei fuerat imprecatus. Apul. Miles. lib. 9.

Romans to the simple act of sneezing, should be also found to exist among remote nations, who never heard of them, and could not adopt the usage from a spirit of imitation. It was so in Monomotapa, in the south of Africa. When the prince sneezed there, all the people were solemnly apprised of it, and simultaneous prayers were every where offered up for his preservation.* In Peru, on the first arrival of the Spaniards, they found the same practice prevailing. At one of their interviews with the natives, the Cacique Guachoia sneezed, when all the Indians fell immediately prostrate before him, and prayed to the sun to enlighten and defend him +

At the present day, I found the usage of salutation universal in every country I visited, in the east and in the west; although, generally speaking, all memory of its origin was lost. An Arab says on the occasion, Hanian! "Mercy on me!" To which the bystanders answer by Alla y Hamet! "May God have mercy on you!" The Turks say to the person who sneezes, Ther ossun!" May it do you good!" and sometimes, Emrouni tchoke allion! "May your life be continued!" The Armenians are very particular, and never neglect to exclaim, Kher Ghulla! which implies, "May the act not harm you!" The Greeks exclaim, Zethi! an expression equivalent to Long life to you!" Among the people of the west, the Portuguese,

*Strada Prolus. Academica.

+ Conq. of Peru.

and, generally, the Italians, particularly the ecclesiastics, use the Latin word Prosit! "May it be profitable to you!" Among the French and English, the usage, as might be expected, is falling into disuse, with others which the wisdom of our ancestors thought it right formerly to observe. In France, however, some still say, A vos Souhaits! "To your wishes!"--but in England, at the time of the Commonwealth, it seems to have been rejected as a superstitious practice; and the act of sneezing, so far from being deemed ominous or symptomatic of disease, was considered by Milton as a salutary explosion. He compares it to the convulsions of nature shaking the frame of heaven; which, he says

"Are to the main as inconsiderable,

And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze

To man's less universe."*

In Ireland, however, the ominous import of sneezing still holds its sway, with unabated respect, among the peasantry, who assign for their salutation many reasons. It is considered there not only as having been a symptom of the pestilence, which at different periods raged in the country, and also a thing of lucky or unlucky augury; but it is deemed as a sound that has considerable influence on the operations of fairies. A sneeze, from the circumstances connected with it, is

* Paradise Regained, Book iv.

supposed to dispel or confirm their power over mortals. If a person sneeze once or twice only, without the usual salutation, he is under the protection of his tutelar saint; if a third time, he is at the mercy of the "good people." They never fail, therefore, to ejaculate, in the most pious and earnest manner, to the sneezer, Die ling! "God protect you!" And, in order that a good wish might not be thrown away on a person who caused himself to sneeze by any stimulant application, they sometimes say, Die lath morra sneesheen, "God be with you, except it be snuff!"

*This superstition is happily illustrated by my friend, Crofton Croker, in his amusing Irish Stories. I have frequently heard similar ones, from the peasantry themselves.

HER GRACE OF RICHMOND.

BY THE HON. MRS. NORTON.

HAUGHTY and beautiful! thy noble birth
Upon thy brow's smooth tablet may be read;
And thou with measured step dost walk the earth,
As though its dust were honoured by thy tread.
Majesty is thy soul. Thy very hand

Its share of graceful dignity obtains-
Seems as its wave sufficed for a command,

And carries freedom in its azure veins.

Thy robe's full sweep descends in ample folds,
As conscious of thy stateliness of place;
The very zone thy slender waist that holds
Seems proud. Oh! beautiful in form and face!
How long might idlers stand and gaze on thee,
Rapt in wild dreams of glorious deeds and days,
When such as thou cheered England's chivalry,
Or smiled reward upon the minstrel's lays !
How might the poet sigh who knew thee not,
And, all-forgetting in his listless trance,

Give to such regal charms a queenly lot,
And suit thy picture with a proud romance!

E