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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



FEET-WASHING AND FEET-KISSING. 



IN his article on Greeting by Gesture, in 

 The Popular Science Monthly for Febru- 

 ary, Colonel Garrick Mallery gave some three 

 pages to the usages in respect to kissing, 

 and said among other things, "Some reli- 

 gious sects e. g., the Dunkers also kiss 

 one another's feet after washing them." 



The following note has been sent us re- 

 specting this statement. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



My dear Sir: In the Chicago Tribune of 

 January 31st, I notice an article from your 

 periodical, entitled Kissing has a History. In 

 it occurs the following : " Dunkers also kiss 

 one another's feet when they have washed 

 them." Your historian lacks information, 

 both on the teachings of the Bible and 

 the practice of the Tunker Churchf which fol- 

 lows strictly the instructions of the former. 

 I have been a member of the Tunker Church 

 over thirty-five years, and have many times 

 taken part in the Bible command, " Wash 

 one another's feet " (John, xiii, 14), and 

 the injunction, " Salute one another with a 

 holy kiss " ; but I never saw them "kiss one 

 another's feet," as your historian states. I 

 send you herewith a proof of an article 

 found in our own Church Almanac for 1891. 

 It will give you and your people some idea 

 of our people. I shall be pleased to make a 

 correction if you feel so disposed. Hoping 

 that I may not be misunderstood, I remain, 

 Yours truly, 



J. G. Roger, 

 Professor of Mental and Moral Science, 

 Mount Morris College. 



The article mentioned in the note is an 

 account of the history, doctrine, and usages 

 of the Brethren or Dunkers, compiled by 

 Mr. D. L. Miller. It says, concerning the 

 particular point to which attention is turned : 



" The love-feast, which they believe to 

 be patterned after the Supper of the Lord, 

 is a full meal, prepared and placed upon the 

 table used for that purpose in the church, 

 and is partaken by all the members to the 

 satisfying of hunger. It is preceded by the 

 religious rite of washing feet a service 

 emblematical, as originally described in 

 John, xiii, of the equality of all the members 

 in service, and " bears no more relation to 

 personal cleanliness than the act of baptism 

 does to a bath ... In its practice, at the 

 love-feast occasions, water is poured into 

 a basin, and a towel or apron is girded 



about the brother, and, from the example 

 given by Christ, he typically washes his 

 brother's bared feet, as an evidence that he 

 is his servant, and the other his master. 

 The relations are then reversed, and the serv- 

 ant then becomes the master. . . . The sis- 

 ters wash the sisters' feet, and all the pro- 

 prieties of the sexes are most rigidly ob- 

 served. After observing the ceremony of 

 feet-washing, a blessing is asked upon the 

 simple meal spread on the tables, and it is 

 eaten with solemnity. ... At the conclu- 

 sion of the meal thanks are returned, and 

 then, as the members are seated around the 

 tables, the right hand of fellowship and the 

 kiss of charity are given. The salutation of 

 the kiss of love in worship and in customary 

 greetings, as enjoined by the apostle, is 

 never observed between the sexes." 



The administration of the communion 

 follows. 



Colonel Mallery, to whom we sent Prof. 

 Roger's letter and inclosure, explains that 

 his reference to the Dunkers was a merely 

 incidental illustration of the principles he was 

 setting forth in his article. It is a matter of 

 his recollection, his early life having been 

 passed in Philadelphia, now including Ger- 

 mantown places which are mentioned in 

 Mr. Miller's paper as the earliest American 

 seats of the Dunkers. He distinctly remem- 

 bers having heard the practice spoken of 

 more than forty years ago by persons who 

 witnessed the ceremony. 



"Though our correspondent," he says, 

 " has not heard of kissing the feet in con- 

 nection with their ceremonial washing among 

 the Dunkers during the thirty -five years in 

 which he has been connected with them, 

 that does not prove that the kissing part of 

 the ceremony was not practiced forty years 

 ago, and that it has not continued later in 

 parts of the country with which he has not 

 been familiar. The Dunkers, popularly known 

 also by other titles, have probably not long 

 enjoined a ritual so immutable and distinct 

 that it could not be varied at their scattered 

 seats by the influence of tradition or indi- 

 vidual taste. We have been informed by 

 a frequent visitor to Germantown, Pa., 

 before 184*7, that foot-kissing was then 

 and there commonly reported to be prac- 

 ticed among the Dunkers ; we are also fur- 

 nished with the statement of a resident of 

 Allentown, Pa., that he witnessed that per- 

 formance by them. 



" It would be strange if foot-kissing as a 



