Page:The art of kissing (IA artofkissing987wood).djvu/15

 II THE HISTORY OF LIP KISSING

In Antiquity.—The antiquity of lip kissing may be traced, in no very pronounced form, to the Aryan and Semitic peoples. Among the ancient Arabs, and their Semitic relatives, the Hebrews, the kiss had many uses, most of these being related to religion. The kiss was used as a direct method of worship of some gods: "Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves" (Hosea xiii 2). Similarly the Lord said to Elijah: "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him" (I Kings xix 18). A stranger religious rite is referred to by Job (xxxi 27) when he refers to kissing his hand to the moon or sun, as a symbol of worship.

The kiss of salutation, especially among men, was common. Thus Jacob kissed his father Isaac; Joseph kissed all his brethren, his sons, and his father; Aaron kissed Moses, and Moses in turn kissed his father-in-law Jethro; Samuel, when he anointed Saul as king, kissed him; David kissed Jonathan, and later his son Absalom; and Absalom kissed all who came to see him, in order to win their allegiance by this grant of near-royal favor. Later all the Macedonian Christians kissed Paul, as he was leaving them. This kiss was extended, among the early Christians, to in-