SALUTATIONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17947, 14 November 1918, Page 6

SALUTATIONS.

SOME QUEER CUSTOMS. Why flays the "New York Herald") ds it that French' officers have ceased to kiss Americans on both cheeks while the Yanks are being decorated for bravery in France ? Have the French dropped tho custom because of Yankee doughboys' objections to being "mugged?'' Those queries are samples of tho questions being asked by Americans these days, since motion pictures of recent ceremonies of decoration have been shown in this country and spectators have noted that the 'usual osculation lias ceased to be a part of tho proceedings. . . The French High Commission, No. 65, Broadway, has an answer for the public. It declares the picture people have failed to make it clear that kissing a soldier on both cheeks is merely part of the ceremony whereby the decoration of the Legion of Honour is conferred. Kissing is not part of the ceremonies whereby the Military Cross or the Croix do Guerre are given. The shrewd blue eyes of one grizzled old French captain in the offices of the French Commission twinkled most humorously when he was asked why it is that the" French had given up kissing Americans when the latter \vvtvi being decorated. "I might tell you," said the captain, smiling behind the barrage of his gray moustache, bushy as a fox's tail, "zat cot is because ase American,, had no time to shave, and zat zair whiskairs were fool of cootees. But as ze subject is serious we tell you what wetheenk is *:e correct answer." The custom of kissing men on bothcheeks has come down from the days when young French . noblemen, about ,to be knighted,for some valiant.deed, spent twenty-four hours in solitude and prayer and then came forth, j knelt down,.received the stroke of the sword across- their backs and were i kissed by tho knight who was conferring knighthood. Napoleon, when lie formed the Legion of Honor, eliminated many of the old customs, keeping the touch of the sword and the kiss. Among the manners and customs of our allies in France, which most of our soldiers "over there" now see for the first time,, nothing probably seems stranger than the. practice of kissing among men. Tho bearded poiltis thus greet and take leave of each other as regularly as do school girls on this side of\the sea's;.- But-" do , altttationibus non disputendv.m est-"-—each nation to its own hnbit--for salutations vary the world arcpid according to taste and temperament ami the different peoples, and in the s-ame people according to the degree, of respect, designed to be sliown to the person addressed.

Taking off the hat by men, which for yearn bar, been the accepted mode of greeting in the western world, was originally a sign of disarming or defeneelessncss or destitution in tho presence of a superior. Polynesian or African chiefs require moro or . less stripping, such as nncovorng to the waist., which Captain Cook describes in Tahiti. Eastern nations, on. the other hand, arc ant to see disrespect in baring the head, but insist on the feet, being uncovered. "Striking hands,/', used in the West to make the greeting more hearty, is the emphatic form of tho original gesture of grasping hands, _ which makes its appearance in antiquity as n legal act symbolic of the parties joining in compact, peace and friendship. The American variety, called " shaking hands,',' appears not to have become usual until; tho Middle Ages. Among African tribes the parties press their thumbs together. The Semitic races have preserved something of the adoration and prostration to which tho Orientals have been and still are bound in the presence, of ,„their superiors, and their gestures iii greeting are as Irtimble' as their words. Even the Arab, so proud by nature, will touch tho ground with his right band and put it .to his lips. In Dahomey and Slant subjects crawl before the King, and' even Siberian peasants grovel.and kiss the dust before the noble.

The kiss, which appears constantly in Semitic and Aryan antiquity, as in the Book oi' Oenesis, " The Odyssey'' and in Herodotus' description of the Persians of his time kissing one another, and which is still prevailing even among men in France and the. Slavic countries, seems to bo unknown over half th« world, _ where tho prevailing salute Is that of snuffing or smelling, which belongs to the. Polynesia nf, Malays, Burmese and other Chinese, Mongols, etc.,'extending thence eastward to the Esquimaux and westward to Lapland, where Lynnaeus nvx relatives saluting by putting their noses together. Besides.these some of tho strangest forms of greeting are prevalent in various parts of the world. lit .Manila it is customary for women to cress• the face of their man caller. Tn Lemuria, near the Philippines, two natives on meeting take hold of each other's foot and rub their faces with it. In Burmnh they gravel before you while uttering tin* melodious words " Hib-nib" whatever this means. The inhabitants of Socoira. an island in tho Indian Ocean, kiss the person to be honoured on the shoulder, while those of tho Great Cyclades in the JEgean Sea, pour water en bis head. A Laplander greets you by rubbing his nose against your forehead, while a negro of Cape Lopez will kneel down before you and clap thrice with his hands. The Japan* pse takes off his wooden shoes, and the Chinese, while shaking his own hands and inclining his head, will greet you with his " Tsin-tsin," etc. All this may seem ridieuktis to an American, but after all, it is not any more ridiculous than our own modern custom of almost crushing one another's fingers in shaking hands: nay, the custom of Manila women will appeal to many as the moro acceptable one.