Page:The Kiss and its History.djvu/158

144 shoulders; and it was assuredly with a kiss of pretended friendship that Judas betrayed his Master.

Even the Greeks in former times used kissing as a common salutation; not only friends and acquaintances kissed each other, but also persons who quite accidentally met when they were travelling.

The custom of kissing, however, became less general later on. In a discourse of Dion Chrysostomus, called From Eubœa, or "The Hunter," is a story of a rustic coming to the city and meeting two acquaintances in the assembly, whom he goes up to and kisses. "But," says the rustic, "people laughed prodigiously at my kissing them, and, on that occasion, I learnt that it is not customary for people of the city to kiss each other."

Kissing seems to have been much more in vogue with the Romans, amongst whom it was the usual custom for people to salute each other with a kiss on the hand, the cheek, or the mouth. Many even, scented their mouths in order to render their kisses more pleasing—or less unpleasant. Martial laments