Note 42 — ON THE CUSTOM OF SALUTING AFTER SNEEZING.
Reading edition
Xenophon having addressed a speech to his soldiers, in which he declared he felt many reasons for a dependence on the favour of the gods, had scarcely concluded his words when one of them emitted a loud sneeze. Xenophon at once declared this a spontaneous omen sent by Jupiter as a sign that his protection was awarded them.
"O, happy Bridegroom! thee a lucky sneeze To Sparta welcom'd."—Theocritus, Idyll xviii.
"Prometheus was the first that wished well to the sneezer, when the man which he had made of clay fell into a fit of sternutation upon the approach of that celestial fire which he stole from the sun."—Ross's Arcana Microcosmi.