CURIOUS KISSING CUSTOMS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 81

CURIOUS KISSING CUSTOMS.

In the remotest ages, men saluted the sun, moon, and stars by kissing the hand. It was the custom of the- earliest Christian bishops to give their hand to be kissed by the ministers who served at the , altar. The custom soon declined, however, ' as a religious ceremony, but it is still con- < tinued as a C <urt ceremonial, the kissing of the hand of the sovereign being regarded as a mark of the highest favour in most of the kingdoms of Christendom. j It is a matter of history that the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire bribed with ' a kiss many a reluctant voter for Fox in the famous Westminster election, and the equally beautiful and bewitching Lady Gor- | don, when the Scottish regiments had been thinned by cruel reverses, turned recruiting sergeant, and to tempt the gallant lads : placed' the recruiting shilling in her lips, ' whence he who would might take it with j his own. In Finland the women consider a salute ' tipon,the lips^as the greatest insult, even , from their -own husbands. I It was at one time the custom of English duellists to kiss each other before firing. This piece of hypocrisy was satirised by John Wesley in his Journal under date June 16, 1758, recording a duel between two officers at Limerick : — "Mr B. proposed firing at 12 yards. Mr J. said, 'No; six is enough.' So they kissed each . other (poor farce!), and before they were five paces asunder both' fired at the instant." y Mohammedans on their pious pilgrimage to Mecca kiss the sacred black stone and the four corners of the Kaaba. The Romish priest on Palm Sunday kisses the palm. There is a curious tradition about the origin of kissing the toe of the Sovereign Pontiff. It is said that one of tbe Leos substituted the toe for the right hand as the object of salute because his own right | »iand had been mutilated by misadventure, j and he was too vain to expose the stump. | In Iceland kissing is severely repressed , by the civil laws, and the consent of the i lady to ths salutation does not release the j male transgressor from the liability to heavy punishment. In Russia the Easter salutation is a kies. . Each member of the family salutes the other. Chance acquaintances kiss when they meet. Principals kiss their employees ; the general kisses his officers ; the officers kiss their soldiers ; the Czar kisses bis family, retinue, court, and atten- j

dants, and even his officers on parade, the sentinels at the palace gates, *md a select party of private soldiers. In short, Eastertide in Russia is a carnival of "bread and cheese and kisses." [All Rights Reserved.] ]