The best essay on _sneezing_, that I am acquainted with, is to be found in Strada's _Prolusions_, book iii. Prol. 4., in which he replies at some length, and not unamusingly, to the Query, "Why are sneezers saluted?" It seems to have arisen out of an occurrence which had recently taken place at Rome, that a certain _Pistor Suburranus_, after having sneezed twenty-three times consecutively, had expired at the twenty-fourth sneeze: and his object is to prove that Sigonius was mistaken in supposing that the custom of saluting a sneezer had only dated from the days of Gregory the Great, when many had died of the plague in the act of sneezing. In opposition to this notion, he adduces passages from Apuleius and Petronius Arbiter, besides those from Ammianus, Athenæus, Aristotle, and Homer, already quoted in your pages by MR. F. J. SCOTT. He then proceeds to give five causes from which the custom may have sprung, and classifies them as religious, medical, facetious, poetical, and augural. Under the first head, he argues that the salutation given to sneezers is not a mere expression of good wishes, but a kind of veneration: "for," says he, "we rise to a person sneezing, and humbly uncover our heads, and deal reverently with him." In proof of this position, he tells us that in Ethiopia, when the emperor sneezed, the salutations of his adoring gentlemen of the privy chamber were so loudly uttered as to be heard and re-echoed by the whole of his court; and thence repeated in the streets, so that the whole city was in simultaneous commotion. The other heads are then pursued with considerable learning, and some humour; and, under the last, he refers us to St. Augustin, _De Doctr. Christ._ ii. 20., as recording that-- "When the ancients were getting up in the morning, if they chanced to sneeze whilst putting on their shoes, they immediately went back to bed again, in order that they might get up more auspiciously, and escape the misfortunes which were likely to occur on that day." One almost wishes that people now-a-days would sometimes consent to follow their example, when they have "got out of bed the wrong way." C. W. BINGHAM. * * * * * SIR JOHN DE MORANT. (Vol. ix., p. 56.) In answer to the Query of H. H. M., I beg to state that the Sir John de Morant chronicled by Froissart was Jean de Morant, Chevalier, Seigneur d'Escours, and other lordships in Normandy. He was fourth in descent from Etienne de Morant, Chevalier, living A.D. 1245, and son of Etienne de Morant and his wife Marie de Pottier. His posterity branched off into many noble Houses; as the Marquis de Morant, and Mesnil-Garnier, the Count de Panzès, the Barons of Fontenay, Rupierre, Biéville, Coulonces, the Seigneurs de Courseulles, Brequigny, &c.