Again, Jacobus de Voragine (1230-98) wrote as follows in the “Golden Legend,” a popular religious work of the Middle Ages:— For a right grete and grevous maladye: for as the Romayns had in the lenton lyved sobrely and in contynence, and after at Ester had receyvd theyr Savyour; after they disordered them in etyng, in drynkyng, in playes, and in lecherye. And therefore our Lord was meuyed ayenst them and sent them a grete pestelence, which was called the Botche of impedymye, and that was cruell and sodayne, and caused peple to dye in goyng by the waye, in pleying, in leeying atte table, and in spekyng one with another sodeynly they deyed. In this manere somtyme snesyng they deyed; so that whan any persone was herd snesyng, anone they that were by said to hym, _God helpe you_, or _Cryst helpe_, and yet endureth the custome. And also whan he sneseth or gapeth, he maketh to fore his face the signe of the crosse and blessith hym. And yet endureth this custome. The Icelander, when he sneezes, says, “God help me!” and to another person who sneezes he says, “God help you!” In Icelandic tradition the custom dates from a remote period, when the Black Pest raged virulently in portions of the country, and the mortality therefrom was great. At length the scourge reached a certain farm where lived a brother and sister, and they observed that the members of the household who succumbed to the disease were first attacked by a violent paroxysm of sneezing; therefore they were wont to exclaim “God help me!” when they themselves sneezed. Of all the inhabitants of that district, these two were the only ones who survived the pest, and hence the Icelanders, throughout succeeding generations, have continued the pious custom thus originated.[392] In mediæval German poetry are to be found occasional references to this subject, as in the following passage quoted in Grimm’s “Teutonic Mythology:” “The pagans durst not sneeze, even though one should say, ‘God help thee.’” And in the same work allusion is made to a quaint bit of fairy-lore about enchanted sprites sneezing under a bridge, that some one may call out “God help,” and undo the spell.