WOMEN'S GREETINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20982, 19 September 1931, Page 6 (Supplement)

WOMEN'S GREETINGS.

IN THE ORIENT. WHEN A GUEST ENTERS. A Japanese woman in her own country touches her forehead to tho ground in salutation, whereas yon would shake hands or kiss a visitor. Tho prostration and tho salaam, salutations that many Orientals use, are only more pronounced forms of a bow, wo arc told by an authority. Among tho Masai and the Ukorewo, it is a mark of respect to greet an acquaintance or a stranger by spitting at her. Almost as strange is the custom ascribed to tho Tibetans of sticking out tho tongue by way of salutation. Rubbing noses, by the way, is quite common; many tribes of Esquimaux and Laplanders do so. Stranger than any of these customs is tho weeping salutation used among Central South American Indians. This form of greeting occurs, too, in the Andaman Island, New Zealand and Polynesia Whenever a guest enters a hut ho is immediately honoured and mado welcome by being wept over. Without a word being spoken he is led to tho hammock. As soon as ho is seated, tho hostess and her daughters and any of their girl friends who happen to bo in tho houso at the time, come and sit about the guest, touch him lightly with their fingers, and commence to weep loudly and to shed many tears; during this ceremony, in a sort of connected discourse, they recilo everything that has happened to them recently, and talk of tho hardships of tho road that the visitors has suffered, and of anything and everything that can arouse compassion and tears. The guest, his hand before his face, pretends to weep, and does not speak until tho crying has gone on for some time. Then they all wipe away their tears and become as merry as if they had never cried in all their lives.