Sneezing. Once, a wish, twice, a kiss, thrice, a letter, and oftener than thrice, something better.
Sneezing before breakfast is a forecast that a stranger or a present is coming.
Sneezing at night-time. To sneeze twice for three successive nights denotes a death, a loss, or a great gain.
Si duæ sternutationes fiant omni nocte ab aliquo, et illud continuitur per tres noctes, signo est quod aliquis vel aliqua de domo morietur vel aliud damnum domui continget, vel maximum lucrum.--Hornmannus, De Miraculis Mortuorum, 163.
Eustathius says that sneezing to the left is unlucky, but to the right lucky. Hence, when Themistoclês was offering sacrifice before his engagement with Xerxes, and one of the soldiers on his right hand sneezed, Euphrantīdês, the soothsayer, declared the Greeks would surely gain the victory.--Plutarch, Lives (“Themistoclês”).
Soot on Bars. Flakes of sheeted soot hanging from the bars of a grate foretell the introduction of a stranger.
Nor less amused have I quiescent watched
The sooty films that play upon the bars
Pendulous, and foreboding ... some stranger’s near approach.
Cowper, Winter Evening.