i 4 6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 



By HEBBEET SPENCEE. 

 V. OBEISANCES. 



SPEAKING of a party of Shoshones surprised by them, Lewis and 

 Clarke say : " The other two, an elderly woman and a little girl, 

 seeing we were too near for them to escape, sat on the ground, and, 

 holding down their heads, seemed as if reconciled to the death which 

 they supposed awaited them. The same habit of holding down, the 

 head and inviting the enemy to strike, when all chance of escape is 

 gone, is preserved in Egypt to this day." Here we are shown an effort 

 to propitiate by absolute submission ; and from acts so prompted origi- 

 nate obeisances. 



When, at the outset, in illustration of the truth that ceremony pre- 

 cedes not only social evolution but even human evolution, I named the 

 behavior of a small dog which throws itself on its back in presence of 

 an alarming great dog, probably many readers thought I was putting 

 on this behavior a somewhat forced construction. They would not have 

 thought so had they known that a parallel mode of behavior occurs 

 among human beings. Describing the Batoka salutation, Livingstone 

 says, " They throw themselves on their backs on the ground, and, rolling 

 from side to side, slap the outside of their thighs as expressions of 

 thankfulness and welcome." Whether or not consciously adopted for 

 this reason, the assumption of this attitude, which implies, " You need 

 not subdue me, I am subdued already," is the best means of obtaining 

 safety. Resistance generates antagonism and arouses the destructive 

 instincts. The stronger animal or the stronger man becomes less dan- 

 gerous when the weaker animal or man passively submits ; because 

 nothing occurs to excite the passion for victory. Hence, then, the nat- 

 ural genesis of this obeisance by prostration on the back, which, per- 

 haps, more than any other position, makes self-defense impracticable. 

 I say perhaps, because another attitude may be instanced as equally 

 helpless, which more elaborately displays complete subjugation. " At 

 Tonga Tabu .... the common people show their great chief .... 

 the greatest respect imaginable by prostrating themselves before him, 

 and by putting his foot on their necks." The like occurs in Africa. 

 Laird says the messengers from the King of Fundah " each bent down 

 and put my foot on their heads, and threw dust over themselves." And 

 among ancient historic peoples this position, originated by defeat in 

 battle, became the position assumed in acknowledgment of submission. 



From these primary obeisances thus representing, as literally as 

 may be, the attitudes of the conquered beneath the conqueror, there 

 come obeisances which express in various ways the subjection of the 



