Varieties.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 414, 21 April 1904, Page 2

Varieties.

SNEEZING. A / !m£T is a very ourioua,,thing that all gfgS over the world there exists the seme ||§g superstition in regard to the apparently trivial matter of sneezing. In nearly every language under the sun there is some equivalent of the 'Gbd bless you!' with which our oldest inhabitants in the country still salute the person who sneezes. To this salutation in France is added sometimes the phrase, ' And preserve you from the fate of Tycbo Brahe,' who is believed to have got rid of a 'death of cold' by a single sneeze—which killed him. In Italy the salutation is simply *Felioita 1' or 'May 1 you Ie fortunate!' In India it is customary when one sneezes to say, * May you lire 1' and the reply runs, ' Long life to you!' Should a Hindu chance to sneeze while he'is going through his peculiar ablution practices in the Ganges, he will make a kind of sign over his face, stop in his ritual, and begin all over again. In ancient times the Bomans, holding the idea that sneezing between noon and midnight was a good omen, believed that between midnight and noon it was most unlucky, r and if they should chance to eneese while getting up in the morning they would at once get into bed again. There must be -something in this, especially on very cold mornings, but boys home for their holidays are not, as a rule, superstitious, and it might.be difficult for them to impress their parents with a saving belief in this happy superstition. The Germans Bay ' Grod health 1' because they maintain, and not without reason, that sneezing is a warning, of approaching catarrh, and, also marks the moment when a charm, » wish or a suggestion may drive it away.

TIME IN DREAMS. The rapidity with which dreams are supposed to rash throa hj the mind has been commented upon by one psychologist in order to establish the identity of thia condition with mental alienation; by another to draw a distinction between the rate of thinking in sleep and in vigilation j and by a third to show that there is no appreciation of time in sleep. Bat is the prodigiously long and varied procession of images presented in dreams so incomparably Bwift in their transit P It is impossible to watch or follow the speed of thought—and all estimates must be received rrther as guesses than approximations—bnt many records prove that in moments of great excitement, and horror, under the apprehension and feeling of immediate dissolution, there arises instant neously a etrospeo+ive panoramic thought during which the events of a lifetime may bo compressed but delineated: wih appalling fidelity and precision in a single moment. The disregard of the measure of time, of the epochs of history, . even in our own clearest daylight thoughts, is often most reckless and capricious. We career ov r the events . of a long and a busy life j we leap over our prescribed seven ages; we transpose eras and unite distant periods in a single thought. No speech, no copyist,- no act can keep pace with the course of the most laggard imagination even when in lengthened dulness long drawn out. The succession of these mental states may, indeed, suggest the idea of time and of its divisions, and may be the measure of passing time; but hot one*- in a thousand individuals app'ies, or can apply, such a standard, and it may be safely affirmed that not one applies it in retrospect... All use the objective method, the time-honoured eight-day clock. There is a dream described by a physician in which he conceived that he had been transformed into a monolith which stood stately and solitary in the Sahara, and so stood for* ages, till generation after generation wasted and melted away around. Although unconscious of having organs of sense, this mass of granite saw the mountains drooping to decay, and the moss and ivy creeping around its crumbling base. These progressive stages of decay involve the notion of time, and of time marked by natural boundaries and signs. THEWMBEB THIBTEEN. A singular instance of the dread the number 13 produces is afforded by the fact that at the Vienna Court Opera the box that follows the twelfth is now numbered 14. Hotels, not only in Austria but in the? countries, have had to take into account the superstitious dislike of their clients to the unlucky number, by doing away with it. Many men and women, especially the latter, have a rooted objection to it. Russian ladies hold it in such superstitious.horror that they would rather sacrifice their favourite hotel or an evening's amusement at the theatre than occupy a room or a box numbered (thirteen. An official at one of the largest hotels in Vienna told, in this connection, of a Dresden bank which has altered its No. 13 to 12 k, and asserted that] the practice is widely spread in Germany. But it is not necessary to go' to the- Continent for instances, as it is easy enough to find them at home, many nervous ladies being as perturbed by thirteen at a party' as by an apparition. ' GBEEK FUNEBAL BITES, ' One thing sure to shook the tourist is a Greek funeral.' said a recently returned traveller. 'lt is a spectacle which most persons of convention-governed decency desire to avoid, because the body of the dead is exposed to public view. The coffin is shallow, so that not only the face • and head but the hands and much of the body can be seen from the sidewalk as the procession moves through the streets. The lid of the coffin, frequently richly upholstered and decorated with garlands and wreaths, is carried on the hearse by the undertaker, dp in the mountains •and in the country the coffin is borne by the relatives themselves. 'ln the Athena cemeteries graves are rented for a term of years, just like the habitations of the quiok. Only the wealthy, own burial lots. This is invariably an evidence 'of wealth or aristocracy. The poor seldom dream.of baying a'lot or tomb. Such purchase would be deemed among them an unnecessary luxury. At the end of the term for which a grave is rented the bones are dug up, placed- in a bag, labelled with the name and dateT-and deposited in a general receptacle,' I