Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/249

] let them lay their plots in vain!'. There is a special form of words used when one's step-father sneezes (page 40). The native notions in the New Hebrides are much the same; but in Lepers' Island, if an infant sneezes, it is a sign that its soul has been away, and has just come back; the friends present cry out with good wishes. They judge in the same island by the character of the sneeze what is the motive with which the sneezer's name is being called; if it be a gentle sneeze no harm is meant, a violent paroxysm is warning of a curse.