Notes and Queries, Number 197, August 6, 1853 | Page 6

cover of which even the fugitive from justice might snatch a wink of sleep, I must for my own part, as usual, still adhere to the authentic text.
W. R. ARROWSMITH.
P. S.--In answer to a Bloomsbury Querist (Vol. viii., p. 44.), I crave leave to say that I never have met with the verb perceyuer except in Hawes, loc. cit.; and I gave the latest use that I could call to mind of the noun in my paper on that word. Unhappily I never make notes, but rely entirely on a somewhat retentive memory; therefore the instances that occur on the spur of the moment are not always the most apposite that might be selected for the purpose of illustration. If, however, he will take the trouble to refer to a little book, consisting of no more than 448 pages, published in 1576, and entitled A Panoplie of Epistles, or a Looking-glasse for the Unlearned, by Abraham Flemming, he will find no fewer than nine examples, namely, at pp. 25. 144. 178. 253. 277. 285. (twice in the same page) 333. 382. It excites surprise that the word never, as far as I am aware, occurs in any of the voluminous works of Sir Thomas More, nor in any of the theological productions of the Reformers.
With respect to speare, the orthography varies, as spere, sperr, sparr, unspar; but in the Prologue to Troilus and Cressida, sperre is Theobald's correction of stirre, in Folios '23 and '32. Let me add, what I had forgotten at the time, that another instance of budde intransitive, to bend, occurs at p. 105. of The Life of Faith in Death, by Samuel Ward, preacher of Ipswich, London, 1622. Also another, and a very significant one, of the phrase to have on the hip, in Fuller's Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, 1647:
"Arnulphus was as quiet as a lambe, and durst never challenge his interest in Jerusalem from Godfrey's donation; as fearing to wrestle with the king, who had him on the hip, and could out him at pleasure for his bad manners."--Book ii. chap. viii. p. 55.
In my note on the word trash, I said (somewhat too peremptorily) that overtop was not even a hunting term (Vol. vii., p. 567.). At the moment I had forgotten the following passage:
"Therefore I would perswade all lovers of hunting to get two or three couple of tryed hounds, and once or twice a week to follow after them a train-scent; and when he is able to top them on all sorts of earth, and to endure heats and colds stoutly, then he may the better relie on his speed and toughness."--The Hunting-horse, chap. vii. p. 71., Oxford, 1685.
* * * * *
SNEEZING AN OMEN AND A DEITY.
In the Odyssey, xvii. 541-7., we have, imitating the hexameters, the following passage:
"Thus Penelope spake. Then quickly Telemachus sneez'd loud, Sounding around all the building: his mother, with smiles at her son, said, Swiftly addressing her rapid and high-toned words to Eum?us, {122} 'Go then directly, Eum?us, and call to my presence the strange guest. See'st thou not that my son, ev'ry word I have spoken hath sneez'd at?[5] Thus portentous, betok'ning the fate of my hateful suitors, All whom death and destruction await by a doom irreversive.'"
Dionysius Halicarnassus, on Homer's poetry (s. 24.), says, sneezing was considered by that poet as a good sign ([Greek: sumbolon agathon]); and from the Anthology (lib. ii.) the words [Greek: oude legei, Zeu s?son, ean ptarêi], show that it was proper to exclaim "God bless you!" when any one sneezed.
Aristotle, in the Problems (xxxiii. 7.), inquires why sneezing is reckoned a God ([Greek: dia ti ton men ptarmon, theon hêgoumetha einai]); to which he suggests, that it may be because it comes from the head, the most divine part about us ([Greek: theiotatou t?n peri hêmas]). Persons having the inclination, but not the power to sneeze, should look at the sun, for reasons he assigns in Problems (xxxiii. 4.).
Plutarch, on the D?mon of Socrates (s. 11.), states the opinion which some persons had formed, that Socrates' d?mon was nothing else than the sneezing either of himself or others. Thus, if any one sneezed at his right hand, either before or behind him, he pursued any step he had begun; but sneezing at his left hand caused him to desist from his formed purpose. He adds something as to different kinds of sneezing. To sneeze twice was usual in Aristotle's time; but once, or more than twice, was uncommon (Prob. xxxiii. 3.).
Petronius (Satyr. c. 98.) notices the "blessing" in the following passage:
"Giton collectione spiritus plenus, ter continuo ita sternutavit, ut grabatum concuteret. Ad quem motum Eumolpus conversus, salvere Gitona jubet."
T. J. BUCKTON.
Birmingham.
[Footnote 5: The practice of snuff-taking has made the sneezing at anything a mark of contempt,