Date:  Fri, 24 Oct 1997 12:57:14 +0100
From:  Aaron Drews <aaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LING.ED.AC.UK>
Subject: Sneeze

On Wed, 22 Oct 1997, barbara wrote:

}
}And while I'm at it, doesn't saying "Bless you" when someone sneezes go back to
}the Black Death and sneezing as a symptom of plague? Remember that lovely bit
}of dialogue from _The Lady's Not for Burning_, said by the priest (abbot, friar
}whoever) just as he exits, "God bless you in case you sneeze." "Thank you. I
}may." Talk about preventive medicine! (Actually, this relationship just
}dawned on me after I'd been talking to a class about the nursery rhyme "Ring
}Around a-Rosy" and its imitation of the plague-stricken.)

    I thought it was because your spirit left you when you sneezed,
leaving you vulnerable to the devil. Well, back around the Plague era,
anyway.
        Aaron


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Aaron E. Drews               http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron
Ph.D. Candidate                     +44 (0)131 650-3485
The University of Edinburgh            fax: +44 (0)131 650-3962
Departments of Linguistics and English Language