Page:The Kiss and its History.djvu/43



" the time of the world's creation kisses were created and cruel love." Thus begins a Cypriot folk-song, and it is assuredly without the shadow of a doubt that among all nations which on the whole know kissing, it gets its sublimest meaning as the expression of love.

In the transport of love the lovers' lips seek each other. When Byron's Don Juan wanders one evening along the shore with his Haidee, they glance at the moonlit sea which lies outspread before them, and they listen to the lapping of the waves and the whispering murmur of the breeze, but suddenly they

Saw each other's dark eyes darting light

Into each other—and, beholding this,

Their lips drew near, and clung into a kiss.

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