392 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



these, of their several kinds, serve to express reverence in its various 

 degrees, to gods, to rulers, and to private persons ; here the prostra- 

 tion is habitually seen, now in the temple, now before the monarch, 

 and now to a powerful man ; here there is genuflection in presence 

 of idols, rulers, and fellow-subjects ; here the salaam is more or less 

 common to the three cases ; here uncovering of the head is a sign 

 alike of worship, of loyalty, and of respect ; and here the bow serves 

 the same three purposes. Similarly with titles : father is a name of 

 honor applied to a god, to a king, and to an honored individual ; so 

 too is lord ; and so are sundry other names. The same thing holds 

 of humble speeches : professions of inferiority and subjection on the 

 part of the speaker are used to secure divine favor, the favor of a 

 ruler, and the favor of a private person. Once more, it is thus with 

 words of praise ; telling a deity of his greatness constitutes a large 

 element of worship ; despotic monarchs are addressed in terms of 

 exaggerated eulogy; and where ceremony is dominant in social inter- 

 course, extravagant compliments are addressed to private persons. 



In many of the less-advanced societies, and also in the more ad- 

 vanced that have retained early types of organization, we find various 

 other examples of observances expressing subordination, that are 

 common to the three kinds of control civil, religious, and social. 

 Among the Malayo-Polynesians the offering of the first fish, and of 

 first fruits, is used as a mark of respect alike to gods and to chiefs ; 

 and the Feejeeans make the same gifts to their gods as they do to their 

 chiefs food, turtles, whales' teeth. In Tonga, " if a great chief takes 

 an oath, he swears by the god ; if an inferior chief takes an oath, he 

 swears by his superior relation, who, of course, is a greater chief." In 

 Feejee, " all are careful not to tread on the threshold of a place set apart 

 for the gods : persons of rank stride over ; others pass over on their 

 hands and knees. The same form is observed in crossing the thresh- 

 old of a chiefs house." In Siam, " at the full moon of the fifth 

 month, the talapoins " (priests) "wash the idol with perfumed water. 

 . . . The people also wash the sancrats and other talapoins ; and then 

 in the families children wash their parents." China affords good in- 

 stances. " At his accession, the emperor kneels thrice and bows nine 

 times before the altar of his father, and goes through the same cere- 

 mony before the throne on which is seated the empress dowager. On 

 his then ascending his throne, the great officers, marshaled according 

 to their ranks, kneel and bow nine times. And the equally ceremoni- 

 ous Japanese furnish kindred evidence. " From the emperor to the 

 lowest subject in the realm there is a constant succession of prostra- 

 tions. The former, in want of a human being superior to himself in 

 rank, bows humbly to some pagan idol ; and every one of his sub- 

 jects, from prince to peasant, has some person before whom he is 

 bound to cringe and crouch in the dirt : " that is, religious, political, 

 and social subordination are expressed by the same form of behavior. 



