Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/256

Rh 236 SALUTATIONS cast their arms round him with kisses on the head, hands, and shoulders (Odyss., xxi. 223) : Kal KVVIOV y&ira6fi. &s 8' aCrou 'O5i/<ruj The embrace continues habitual through later ages, and, though in modern times a good deal restricted, it still marks the meetings of near kinsfolk and lovers. But the kiss, associated with it in passages like those just cited, has no such universality. The idea of the kiss being an instinctive gesture is negatived by its being unknown over half the world, where the prevailing salute is that by smelling or sniffing (often called by travellers " rubbing noses"), which belongs to Polynesians, Malays, Burmese and other Indo-Chinese, Mongols, &c., extending thence eastward to the Eskimo and westward to Lapland, where Linnaeus saw relatives saluting by putting their noses together. 1 This seems the only appearance of the habit in Europe. On the other hand the kiss, the salute by tasting, appears constantly in Semitic and Aryan antiquity, as in the above cases from the book of Genesis and the Odyssey, or in Herodotus's description of the Persians of his time kissing one another if equals on the mouth, if one was somewhat inferior on the cheek (Herod., i. 134). In Greece in the classic period it became customary to kiss the hand, breast, or knee of a superior. In Rome the kisses of in- feriors became a burdensome civility (Martial, xii. 59): " Te vicinia tota, te pilosus Hircoso premit osculo colonus." The early Christians made it the sign of fellowship : "greet all the brethren with an holy kiss" (1 Thess. v. 26; cf. Rom. xvi. 16, &c.); and this may even now be seen among Anabaptists, who make an effort to retain primitive Christian habit. It early passed into more ceremonial form in the kiss of peace given to the newly baptized and in the celebration of the Eucharist 2 ; this is retained by the Oriental Church. After a time, however, its indis- criminate use between the sexes gave rise to scandals, and it was restricted by ecclesiastical regulations men being only allowed to kiss men, and women women, and eventually in the Roman Church the ceremonial kiss at the communion being only exchanged by the ministers, but a relic or cross called an osculatorium or pax being carried to the people to be kissed. 3 While the kiss has thus been adopted as a religious rite, its original social use has continued. Among men, however, it has become less effusive, the alteration being marked in England at the end of the 17th century by such passages as the advice to Sir Wilfull by his London- bred brother : " in the country, where great lubberly brothers slabber and kiss one another when they meet ; . . . 'T is not the fashion here." 4 The kiss on both cheeks between parents and children on Continental railway plat- forms now surprises the undemonstrative Englishman, who, when servants sometimes kiss his hand in southern Europe, is even more struck by this relic of servile ages. Court cere- monial keeps up the kiss on the cheek between sovereign and the kissing of the hand by subjects, and the pope, like a Roman emperor, receives the kiss on his foot. A curious trace which these osculations have left behind i that when ceasing to be performed they are still talked ol by way of politeness : Austrians say, " kiiss d'Hand ! " and Spaniards, "beso a Vd. las manos!" "I kiss your hands!' Strokings, pattings, and other caresses have been turnec to use as salutations, but have not a wide enough range to make them important. Weeping for joy, often occurring naturally at meetings, is sometimes affected as a salutation 1 J. E. Smith, Linnaeus' s Tour in Lapland, vol. i. p. 315. a Bingham, Antiquities of the Chr. Church, bk. xii. c. 4, xv. c. 3. a kiss, p6g, Welsh poc ; see Rhys, Revue Celtique, voL vi. p. 43- jut this seems to be different from the highly ceremonious weeping performed by several rude races when, meeting after absence, they renew the lamentations over those riends who have died in the meantime. The typical case s that of the Australians, where the male nearest of kin cresses his breast to the new comer's, and the nearest emale relative, with piteous lamentations, embraces his jnees with one hand, while with the other she scratches icr face till the blood drops. 5 Obviously this is no joy- weeping, but mourning, and the same is true of the New Zealand tangi, which is performed at the reception of a distinguished visitor, whether he has really dead friends to mourn or not. 6 Cowering or crouching is a natural gesture of fear or inability to resist that belongs to the brutes as well as man ; its extreme form is lying prostrate face to ground. In barbaric society, as soon as distinctions are marked between master and slave, chief and commoner, these tokens of submission become salutations. The sculptures of Egypt and Assyria show the lowly prostrations of the ancient East, while in modern Dahomey or Siam subjects crawl before the king, and even Siberian peasants grovel and kiss the dust before a noble. A later stage is to suggest, but not actually perform, the prostration, as the Arab bends his hand to the ground and puts it to his lips or forehead, or the Tongan would touch the sole of a chief's foot, thus symbolically placing himself under his feet. Kneeling prevails in the middle stages of culture, as in the ceremonial of China ; Hebrew custom sets it rather apart as an act of homage to a deity (1 Kings xix. 18 ; Isa. xlv. 23) ; mediaeval Europe distinguishes between kneeling in worship on both knees and on one knee only in homage, as in the Boke of Curtasye (15th century) : " Be curtayse to god, and kncle doun On bothe knees with grete deuocioun ; To inon )>ou shalle knele opou J>e ton, J toj>er to J>y self ]>ou lialue aloii." Bowing, as a salute of reverence, appears in its extreme in Oriental custom, as among the ancient Israelites: " bowed himself to the ground seven times " (Gen. xxxiii. 3). 7 The Chinese according to the degree of respect implied bow kneeling or standing. 8 The bowing saluta- tion, varying in Europe from something less than the Eastern salaam down to the slightest inclination of the head, is interesting from being given mutually, the two saluters each making the sign of submission to the other, which would have been absurd till the sign passed into mere civility. Uncovering is a common mode of saluta- tion, originally a sign of disarming or defencelessness or destitution in the presence of a superior. Polynesian or African chiefs require more or less stripping, such as the uncovering to the waist which Captain Cook describes in Tahiti. 9 Taking off the hat by men has for ages been the accepted mode in the Western world, done in a frequent, demonstrative way by such as make a show of politeness, and who by being " free of cappe and full of curtesye " pay cheaply social debts ; but modern society has moderated this bowing and scraping (the scrape is throwing back the right leg as the body is bent forward), as well as the curtseys (courtoisie) of women. Eastern nations are apt to see disrespect in baring the head, but insist on the feet being uncovered; the importance attached to entering barefoot is well known to English officials in India; Burmah was agitated for years by "the great shoe B Grey, Journals, vol. ii. p. 255. 6 A. Taylor, New Zealand, p. 221. 7 See the Egyptian bow with one hand to the knee; Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. 8 S. Wells Williams, Middle Kingdom, vol. i. p. 801. 9 See references to these customs in Tylor, Early History of Man- kind, ch. iii.
 * The latter term has supplied the Irish language with its term, fo:
 * Congreve's Way of the World, Act iii.