Show o SNEEZING FATEFUL TO EAST INDIAN Means Impending Calamity to Oriental Mind NEW NEW- NEWYORK YORK TORN Oct 21 Sneezes Sneezes and superstition cost many lives annually In ill India This was the statement of Dr Anna Degenring of the Women Women's s American Baptist Foreign Mission society who has just returned here on a years year's furlough after fourteen years ears as a doctor in ill India A A sneeze means a great impending calamity to the Indian mind said Dr Degenring Whatever happens on the day that one hears a sneeze is sure to turn out ill and the Indian will enter upon no undertaking of importance on such a day Man Many of our patients have refused to have ha operations on which their lives depended on the the day da that had been arranged for or because they happ happened ned to 0 sneeze that morning or even ot of hear someone else sneeze Indian belief in auspicious da days s 's is another another another an an- other hobgoblin in the path paths of the medical mission there Dr Degenring said Soon after an Indian child Is born bOm th the tho l soothsayer er reveals to the family its us lucky star and its unlucky da days s Indians who fall ill or are hurt In an accident persist In waiting alting for their their auspicious auspicious days days' bt before fore sent sending sem ing for for- fora for a doctor The Indians the ph physician explained attribute epidemics to the rash rath of various various various va va- rious goddesses of or ill health adding there is a goddess of malaria and a goddess of or a smallpox smallpox a goddess In fact of eve every recurring epidemic Though they believe in goddesses they are hard to convince concerning germs and they the have no idea of quarantine for contagious diseases Dr Degenring said |