Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/654

636 symbolically signifies reaching out for a good taste, which, also has been discussed. This gesture is common among the Australians, who are said to stick out the tongue in respect, not in derision, as we would regard the action, as also did Isaiah in his query, "Against whom make you a wide mouth and draw out the tongue?" But close observers report that the Australian tribes wholly unaffected by Europeans do not thrust forward the tongue, but extend it downward from the widely opened mouth as in the preparation for licking. The action of these people, perhaps the lowest of all humanity, is similar to the tasting and sniffing by the subhuman animals to distinguish friends.

Cyrus beheaded two satraps because they omitted to place their hands inside their sleeves when they saluted him. Captain Speke had trouble in Uganda lest he should not be admitted into the king's presence wearing his usual dress, without the concealment of his trousers by flowing robes. Probably the origin of these rules of etiquette was the restriction from free motion of the arms and legs of the subjects, so as to insure greater safety to the ruler. In the one hundred and seventieth of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments Prince Camaralzaman showed respect for his father by keeping his hands joined behind his back and covered by his sleeves, but when he became angry with the king he unclasped his hands from behind and rolled his sleeves up on his arms. This is the fighting attitude, and shows that the posture and muffling of respect were adopted because they were the converse of the free pose appropriate for contention. With the same concept a Sakaptin chief, in the early part of this century, threw his robe down on the ground as a sign of displeasure, though not intending an attack.

Other considerations may be mentioned in the direct line of militancy so often discussed in the Synthetic Philosophy, but not definitely in this connection. Apart from the purely ornamental head-gear, such as feathers, horse-hair, fur, and other attachments, the earliest coverings for the head were for defensive purposes. The abandonment of defensive as well as of offensive armor, though once a mark of defeat and subjection, is now more generally a sign of peace and friendship. Some African tribes not only ostentatiously lay down all weapons but remove the upper portion of their clothing to show that neither arms nor armor are concealed. Some formal military salutes still prevailing may be consulted upon the same topic. The theory of these is to render the saluter actually or symbolically powerless for the time. This is the case with the firing of unshotted guns, the dropping of the sword-point, and presenting the musket. The common military salute, in which the empty hand, with palm outward, is raised to the visor, is less objective and more symbolical.