CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 399 



signify not peace only but submission. Speaking of the Peruvians, 

 Cieza says, " The men and boys came out with green boughs and 

 palm-leaves to seek for mercy ; " and among the Greeks, too, a suppli- 

 ant carried an olive-branch. Wall-paintings left by the ancient Egyp- 

 tians show us palm-branches carried in funeral processions to propi- 

 tiate the dead ; and, at the present time, " a wreath of palm-branches 

 stuck in the grave" is common in a Moslem cemetery in Egypt. A 

 statement of Wallis respecting the Tahitians shows it passing into a 

 religious observance : a pendant left flying on the beach the natives 

 regarded with fear, bringing green boughs and hogs, which they laid 

 down at the foot of the staff. And that a portion of a tree was an- 

 ciently an appliance of worship in the East is shown by the direction 

 in Leviticus xxiii. 40, to take the " boughs of goodly trees, branches of 

 palm-trees," etc., and " rejoice before the Lord : " a verification being 

 furnished by the description of the chosen in heaven, who stand before 

 the throne with "palms in their hands" (Revelation vii. 9). The ex- 

 planation, when we get the clew, is simple. Many travelers' narratives 

 illustrate the fact that laying down weapons on approaching strangers 

 is taken to imply pacific intentions : the obvious reason being that 

 opposite intentions are thus negatived. Of the Kaffirs, for instance, 

 Barrow says, " ' A messenger of peace ' is known by this people from 

 his laying down his hassagai or spear on the ground, at the distance 

 of two hundred paces from those to whom he is sent, and by advanc- 

 ing thence with extended arms : " the extension of the arms evident- 

 ly having the purpose of showing that he has no weapon secreted. 

 But how is the absence of weapons to be shown when so far off that 

 weapons, if carried, are invisible ? Simply by carrying other things 

 which are visible ; and boughs covered with leaves are the most con- 

 venient and generally available things for this purpose. A verifica- 

 tion is at hand. The Tasmanians had a way of deceiving those who 

 inferred from the green boughs they were bringing in their hands that 

 they were weaponless. They practised the art of holding their spears 

 between their toes as they walked : " The black .... approaching 

 him in pretended amity, trailed between his toes the fatal spear." 

 Arbitrary, then, as this usage seems when observed in its later forms 

 only, it proves to be by no means arbitrary when traced back to its 

 origin. Taken as evidence that the advancing stranger is without 

 arms, the green bough is primarily a sign that he is not an enemy. 

 It is thereafter joined with other marks of friendship. It survives 

 when the propitiation passes into submission. And so it becomes in- 

 corporated with various other actions which express reverence and 

 worship. 



One more instance I must add, because it conspicuously shows us 

 how there grow up the interpretations of ceremonies as artificially- 

 devised actions, when their natural origins are unknown. Describing 

 Arab marriages, Baker says: " There is much feasting, and the unfor- 



