Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/257

Rh S A L S A L 237 question," whether Europeans should be called on to conform to native custom, rather than their own, by taking off their shoes to enter the royal presence. 1 Grasping hands is a gesture which makes its appearance in antiquity as a legal act symbolic of the parties joining in compact, peace, or friendship ; this is well seen in marriage, where the hand grasp was part of the ancient Hindu ceremony, as was the "dextrarum junctio" in Rome, which passed on into the Christian rite. In the classic world we see it passing into a mere salutation, as where the tiresome acquaintance met by Horace on his stroll along the Via Sacra seizes his hand (Hor., Sat., i. 9) : " Arreptaque manu, ' Quid agis, dulcissime rerum ?'" Giving the right hand of fellowship (Gal. ii. 9) passed naturally into a salutation throughout Christendom, and spread, probably from Byzantium, over the Moslem world. The emphatic form of the original gesture in "striking hands" is still used to make the greeting more hearty. The variety called in English "shaking hands" (Germ. Ilande-schiitteln) only appears to have become usual in the Middle Ages. 2 In the Moslem legal form of joining hands, the parties press their thumbs together. 3 This has been adopted as a salute by African tribes. But it has been especially English traders and missionaries who of late years have introduced shaking hands far and wide in the world, so that even such rude peoples as Australians and Hottentots, Eskimo and Fuegians, unite in practising this modern civilized custom. As to words of salutation, it is found even among the lower races that certain ordinary phrases have passed into formal greetings. Thus among the Tupis of Brazil, after the stranger's silent arrival in the hut, the master, who for a time had taken no notice of him, would say " Ere- ioube ? " that is, " Art thou come 1 " to which the proper reply was, " Yes, I am come ! " 4 Many formulas express difference of rank and consequent respect, as where the Basuto salute their chiefs with " Tama sevata ! " i.e., " Greeting, wild beast ! " Congo negroes returning from a journey salute their wives with an affectionate Olcowe ! but they meekly kneeling round him may not repeat the word, but must say Ka! lea/ 5 Among cultured nations, saluta- tions are apt to be expressions of peace and goodwill, as in the Biblical instances, "Is it well with thee?" (2 Kings iv. 26) ; " Peace to thee, and peace to thine house," &c. (1 Sam. xxv. 6 ; see Ezra iv. 17). Such formulas run on from age to age, and the latter may be traced on to the Moslem greeting, Saldm l alaikum / " The peace be on you," to which the reply is Wa-alaikum as-saldm! "And on you be the peace (sc. of God) !" 6 This is an example how a, greeting may become a pass-word among fellow- believers, for it is usually held that it may not be used by or to an infidel. From an epigram of Meleager (Anth., ed. Jacobs, vii. 119 ; cf. Plautus, Pcen., v., passim) we learn that, while the Syrian salutation was Shelom (" Peace ! "), the Phoenicians greeted by wishing life (*31X Tin, the N1H, &c., of Neo-Punic gravestones). The cognate Babylonian form, "0 king, live for ever!" (Dan. iii. 9), represents a series of phraseswhich continue still in the Vivat rex! "Long live the king ! " The Greeks said x a V e, " Be jyf ul ! " b ta at meeting and parting ; the Pythagorean vyiao/eiv and the Platonic cv Trpd-rrfiv wish health ; at a later time d<77raoftai, " I greet !" came into fashion. The Romans applied Salve ! "Be in health!" especially to meeting, and Vale! "Be well!" to parting. In the modern civilized world, everywhere, the old inquiry after health appears, the "How do you do?" be- coming so formal as often to be said on both sides without 1 Shway Yoe, The Burman, vol. ii. pp. 158, 205. 2 See Tylor in Macmillan's Mag., May 1882, p. 76. 3 Lane, Mod. Eg., vol. i. p. 219. 4 Jean de Lery, part ii. p. 204. 5 Magyar, Reise in Sud-Afrika. 6 Cf. vol. xvi. p. 553, note 1. either waiting for an answer. Hardly less wide in range is the set of phrases "Good day!" "Good night!" &c., varying according to the hour, and translating into every language of Christendom. Among other European phrases, some correspond to our "welcome!" and "farewell!" while the religious element enters into another class, exemplified by our "Good-bye !" ("God be with you!"), and French Adieu! Attempts have been made to shape European greetings into expressions of orthodoxy, or even tests of belief, but they have had no great success. Examples are a Protestant German salutation " Lobe Jesum Christum /" answered by "In Ewigkeit, Amen/" and the formula which in Spain enforces the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, " Ave Maria purisima/" answered by "Sin pecado concebida/" On the whole, though the half-meaningless forms of salu- tation may often seem ridiculous, society would not carry them on so universally unless it found them useful. In fact, they serve the substantial purpose of keeping up social intercourse, and establishing relations between the parties in an interview, of which their tone may strike the key note. Montaigne, a master of the courtesy of an age more ceremonious than ours, truly asserts their importance, " C'est au demourant une tres utile science que la science de 1'entregent." (B. B. T.) SALUZZO, or SALUCES, a city of Italy, at the head of a circondario in the province of Cuneo, 42|- miles south of Turin (with which it is connected by railway and a steam tramway), is situated 600 to 650 feet above the sea, just where the last hills of the Monte Viso die away into the plain between the Po and its tributary the Vraita. The upper town preserves some part of the fortifications which protected it when, previous to the plague of 1630, the city had upwards of 30,000 inhabitants ; and the hill is crowned by the ruins of an ancient castle. The more im- portant castle of the marquises (in which according to the legend the patient Griselda was confined) is in the lower town and now serves as a penitentiary. Besides the cathedral (Gothic, 1480-1511), with the tombs of the old marquises, other conspicuous buildings are the churches of San Giovanni (formerly San Domenico) and San Bernardo (the former the finest architectural monument of the marquisate), the old town-house (1462), the new town-house (formerly belonging to the Jesuits), and the theatre (1829). To the north of the city lies the abbey of Staffarda (1130- 1737). The population of the city was 10,145 (commune 16,237) in 1880. By some authorities Saluzzo is identified with Augusta Vagien- norum. The line of its marquises began (1142) with Manfred, son of Boniface, marquis of Savona, and continued till 1548, when the death of Gabriel, imprisoned by Henry II. of France in the castle of Pinerolo, allowed city and territory to be seized by the French. The marquises of Saluzzo being great opponents of the house of Savoy, and frequently taking part in the struggles between France and the empire, the city often had to suffer severely from the fortunes of war. Henry IV. restored the marquisate to Charles Emmanuel I. of Savoy at the peace of Lyons in 1601. Among the celebrities of Saluzzo are Silvio Pellico (whose statue, 1863, gives name to the Piazza del Statute), Bodoni the famous printer, and Casalis the historian of Sardinia. The history of the marquisate was written by Delfino Muletti, 5 vols., 1829-1833. SALVADOR, See SAN SALVADOR. - SALVAGE is "the reward which is earned by those who have voluntarily saved or assisted in saving a ship or boat, or their apparel, or any part thereof ; or the lives of persons at sea ; or a ship's cargo or any part thereof from peril; or a wreck from total loss" (Roscoe, Admiralty Law and Practice, p. 13). The word salvage is indiffer- ently used to denote the claim, the reward, or the property saved. Salvage is interesting as being perhaps the one case in English law in which a person may become liable to a claim upon him for services rendered to him without his request, express or implied. Salvage may be either military or civil. Claims for military salvage, i.e., salvage