The Star. FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1910. KISSING THE BOOK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9918, 5 August 1910, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1910. KISSING THE BOOK.

- Old customs dio hard, and in.spite of all the agitation against the insanitary habit of "kissing the Book" in law courts, wo have had to wait until now for the overdue reform. The At-torney-General has at length introduced a new Oaths Bill, providing alternative forms of adjuration for use in the courts. W© dare say that tho refor.-a, like every other novelty, will meet with unreasoning opposition from somo quarters, bat there ought to be no doubt about its passage through Parliament. Kissing the Book is one of the venerable customs that we can let pass without a pang of 'regret. Sentiment is all very well in its way, but it should not be permitted to eu-' courage the continuance of a. practice that has nothing else to commend it and very much to condemn it. The value of an oath will not be impaired by the omission of an insignificant formality. Eminent lawyers have told us that kissing the Book is not obligatory, and as a matter of fact sensitive people have for years past preferred kissing a moderately clean thumb to kissing.a Bible of uncertain purity, and court officials 'have conveniently overlooked the obvious omission. When a witness has openly declared his objection to kissing the court Bible his courage has sometimes led to mi embarrassing discussion, and the formal approval of the law for the reform, now proposed will bo welcomed. The practice of Bookkissing, if not actually as old as the hills, has at least had a venerable antiquity. It had its origin, according to tho historians, in superstition. "The kiss as a pledge or symbol of truth," writes Judge Parry, "is probably as old in tho world as the degraded ceremony of spitting on a coin for luck, and is what students of folklore call a saliva custom, the origin of which seems to have been a desire •on the part of the devotee for a union with tho divine or holy thing." Judge Parry traces the custom as observed in the law courts back to tho time of William the Conqueror, and observes that even in tho patriarchal ago the kiss was used as a pledge of truth, Jacob having deceived his father Isaac with a kiss. There is abundant evidence that the act of kissing the Bible is not an essential element of tho Christian oath, but was grafted on to it;, in the Middle Ages. Hie earliest form followed a late Hebrew practice, in which tho Scriptures were held in the hand. The established Hebrew custom, however, was simply to hold up the hand. Apart from questions of history, the practice of kissing the Book is sufficiently condemned on grounds of health, and it is a matter for congratulation that Dr Findlay has at last moved in the direction of reform.