BOWS, SCRAPES, AND KISSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 35

BOWS, SCRAPES, AND KISSES.

The coat being old and somewhat shiny along the sleeves, was given to the Japanese boy, and he on receiving it brought the tips of his hands together over the pit of his stomach and bowed three times in a queer, jackknife fashion, bending only from his hips. It was an odd, jerky sort of bow, but still effective and picturesque. It set the writer thinking of the many strange forms of salutation and obeisance that were practised in the world, and it was determined, if possible, to make a brief catalogue of them. In the necessary "reading up" on the subject Spencer was taken down, and among his works was noticed a volume on the " Evolution of Ceremonial Government." Scattered throughout its pages were many notes of the varied forms of greetings to be seen in strange places, some of which are ■used below.

Because of the presence of Orientals and foreigners from every part of the world, San Francisco is a very good place in which to study the art of obeisance. The Chinese salaam and their New Year's greeting ; the cordial hand-shake of the Caucasian; the short, English, semi-military salute; the pronounced inclination and exaggerated hat- lift of the Latin race; the Continental and defeiential uncovering before a funeral; the genuflection before sacred images and pictures- all these and a score of other diverse customs ,ire to be seen here.

Describing the Batoka salutation, Livingstone 6aid: "They throw themselves on their backs on the giound, and, rolling from side to side, slap the outside of their thighs as expressions ot thankfulness and wel* pome,"

"At Tonga," Tabu says, "the common people show their great chief the greatest respect imaginable, by prostrating themselves before him and putting his foot on their necks." The like occurs in Africa. Laird says the messengers from the King of Fundah " each bent down and put my foot on their heads, and threw dust over themselves."

Of old in the Bast, subjection of deference was expressed when " Ben-hadad's servants girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the King of Israel." In the Peru of the Incas, when the militant type of organisation was pushed to excess, Garcilosso records that a sign of humility was to have the hands tied and a rope round the neck. Along with this mode another was employed of carrying a burden when approaching the Inca, this taking up a load to enter the presence at Atahuallpa, being a ceremony which is performed by all the lords who have reigned in that land.

In ancient America, before a Chiba cazique, " people had to appear prostrate and with their faces touching the ground."

In Africa, when a Borghoo man addresses a king, " he stretches himself on the earth as flat as a flounder, in which attitude he lies kissing the dust till his business with his sovereign is at an end."

In Asia, " when preferring a complaint, a khond or pando will throw himself on bis face, with hands joined, and a bunch of straw or grass in his mouth." In Siam, "bafore the nobles all subordinates are in a state of reverent prostration, the nobles themselves in the presence of the sovereign exhibiting the same crawling obeisance."

Falling on the face was a mark of reverence among] the Sandwich Islanders, the king doing so to Cook when he first met him.

According to Bootan, he saw the common Hindus who came before the rajah " make nine prostrations, which is the obeisance paid to him by his subjects whenever they are permitted to approach." Among the coast negroes, if a native goes to visit his superior, or meets him by chance, he immediately falls on his knees and thrice successively kisses the earth, wishes the superior a good day or night and congratulates him.

Laird, quoted above, says that in acknowledgment of his inferiority the King of the Brass people never spoke to the King of the Ihos without going down on his knees and touching the ground with his head. At Embomma, on the Congo, one of Stanley's depots, " the mode of salutation is by gently clapping the hands, while an inferior at the same time goes on his knees andkisses the bracelets on the superior's ankle. On the Lower Niger, "as a mark oi great respect, men prostrate themselves and strike their heads against the ground." When in past times the Emperor of Bussia was crowned, the nobility did homage by "bending down their heads and knocking them at his feet to the very ground."

In China, at the present time, among the eight obeisances increasing in humility, the fifth is kneeling and striking the head on the ground ; the sixth kneeling and thrice knocking the head, which again doubled makes the seventh, and trebled the eighth. Of old, among the Hebrews, repetition had a kindred meaning. Nathan " bowed himself before the king, with his face to the ground." Abigail did the like to David, and Ruth to Boaz, while "Jacob bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near his brother." " Abraham fell upon his f ace " before God when he covenanted with him. " Nebuchadnezzer fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel." When making obeisance to their josses the Mongolians touch the ground with the forehead thrice, the Calmucks only once. The Japanese in their temples " fall down upon their knees, bow their heads quite to the ground slowly and with great humility."

In Dahomey the officers fall down before the king and lie on their sides. "At times they roll over upon their bellies or relieve themselves by standing on • all fours.' "

Duran states that "cowering was with the Mexicans the posture of respect." Crouching is also a sign of respect among the New Caledonians, as it is in Tahiti.

When changing their places before a superior the Siamese "drag themselves on their hands and knees." It is so, too, in Cambodia. "If anyone had to approach the royal person|to give him anything or to obey a call, however far the distince, Cambodian etiquette prescribed a crawling, progressive motion, on knees and elbows." In Java an inferior must walk with his hands upon his heels until he is out of his superior's sight.

In Loango — blessed spot — wives "dare not speak to their husbands but upon ' their bare knees, and in meeting them must creep upon their hands."

Burton speaks of messengers who "go on all fours before the king." In the old Japan, " on leaving the presence of the Emperor, officers walked backward on their knees."

Among the Soosoos, when a man greets his superior he bends his body and places one hand upon each knee.

In Samoa "on passing through a room where a chief is sitting it is disrespectful to walk erect, the person must pass along with the body bent downward."

Of the Congoese, Bastian says that when they have to speak to a superior " they kneel, turn the face half aside, and stretch out the hands towards the person addressed, striking them together at every word." Of the nobility who approached the King of Loango, Astley says; "They clap their hands two or three times, and then cast themselves at his Majesty's feet into the sand, rolling over and over in it."

Grant narrates that the King of Karague " sat concealed, all but his head, in the doorway of his chief hut and received the salutations of his people, who one by one shrieked and sprang in front of him."

The traveller Drury s»ys that licking the knee is a sign of respect among the Malagasy, while in cases of deep abasement the feet are licked. So in ancient Peru, where subordination was unqualified, the chiefs kissed the hands and feet. "Kissing his feet," was part of the reverence shown to Christ by the woman with the box of ointment. So did the Shemamite woman to Elisha, so, in a modified form, do the privileged visitors to the Pope ; such is still the

practice with the Shah and Sultan in Persia and Turkey. In Tonga, "when a person salutes a superior relation, he kisses the hand of the party"; and D'Arvieux states that the women who wait on the Arabian princesses kiss their hands when they do them the favour not to suffer them to kiss their feet or the borders of their soles. Generally speaking, according to the same author, "an Oriental pays his respects to a person of superior station by kissing his hand and putting it to his forehead, but if the superior be of a condescending temper he will snatch away his hand as soon as the other has touched it ; then the inferior puts his own finger to his lips and afterward to his forehead." The Katlanda people on the Niger "in saluting a stranger stoop almost to the earth, throwing dust on their foreheads several times." Describing the " punctiliousness of manners shown by the Balonda people," Livingstone says : "The inferiors on meeting their superiors on the street, at once drop on their knees and rub dust on their arms and chest. During an ovation to a person commanding respect, the speaker every two or three seconds picked up a little sand and rubbed it on the upper part of his arm» and chest. When they wish to be excessively polite they bring a quantity of ashes or pipe clay in a piece of skin, and taking up handf uls rub it on the chest and upper front part of each arm." At the present time in Turkey an abridgment of this obeisance may be witnessed. At a review even officers on horseback saluting their superiors go through the form of throwing dust over their heads.

"If you extend your hand to a Siamese," says La Loubere, "to place it in his, he carries both his hands to yours as if to place himself entirely in your power."

In Sumatra the salutation "consists in bending the body and the inferior's putting his joined hands between those of the superior and lifting them to his forehead." Among the Greeks the Olympian gods were prayed to in an upright position with raised hands; the marine gods with hands held horizontally, the gods of Tartarus with the i.hands held down. The presentation of the hands joined palm to palm was once required throughout Europe from an inferior when professing obedience to a superior, and is still taught to children as the attitude of prayer. During Cook's stay at Tahiti two men of rank came on board, and each singling out his friend, took off his own clothes and put them upon the friend he wished to honour. Up to a very recent time this was also done in Samoa, but now only the girdle is taken off and presented. In Abyssinia inferiors must bare their bodies down to the girdle in the presence of superiors, but to equals the corner of the cloth alone is removed. The Tahitians uncover the body as low as the waist in the presence of the king, and Forster states that in the Society isles generally the lower ranks of the people, by way of respect, strip off their upper garment. Burton remarks that throughout the whole of the Gold Coast "to bare the shoulders is like unhatting in England." So, too, uncloaking in Spain was long equivalent to taking off the hat, and is still so practised in ceitam ceremonies. In ancient Mexico those who came into the presence of Montezuma had to take off their shoes, and -the custom is still observed in Burmah and , Persia. A Japanese leaves his shoes at the door, even when he enters a shop, and upon entering a Turkish house it is the invariable rule to leave the outer slipper at the foot of the stairs. Two Arabs of the desert meeting shake hands 10 times, repeating the question, "How art thou?" with each shake.