CUTHBERT BEDE.
Giving Cheese at a Birth.
—In the county of Northumberland, not far from the Cheviots, I met with the following custom. When a woman's confinement is near, a cheese is made, which, when the child is born, is cut into pieces and distributed among all the houses (without exception) in the vicinity. If the child is a boy, the pieces of cheese are sent to the males; if a girl, to the females, each member of a family receiving a portion. Visitors also come in for their share. Whence did this custom arise?
CUTHBERT BEDE.
Sneezing.
—"The custom of blessing persons when they sneeze," says Brand, "has, without doubt, been derived to the Christian world, where it generally prevails, from the time of heathenism." In addition to the interesting notice of the prevalence of this custom in Europe, and many remote parts of Asia and Africa, given by Brand, I find traces of it amongst the American tribes at the period of the Spanish conquest. In 1542, when Hernando de Soto, the famous conquest-actor of Florida, had an interview with the Cacique Guachoya, the following curious incident occurred:—
"In the midst of their conversation, the Cacique happened to sneeze. Upon this, all his attendants bowed their heads, opened and closed their arms; and making their signs of veneration, saluted their prince with various phrases of the same purport: 'May the sun guard you,' 'may the sun be with you,' 'may the sun shine upon you,' 'defend you,' 'prosper you,' and the like; each uttered the phrase that came first to his mind, and for a short time there was a universal murmuring of these compliments."— The Conquest of Florida under Hernando de Soto, by Theodore Irving, vol. ii. p. 161.
Whence could the natives of the New World have derived a custom so strikingly similar to that which the ancients record?
R. S. F.
Perth.