EVOLUTION OF CEREMONIAL GOVERNMENT. 147 



slave to the master : this last being the sequence of the first. Of old 

 in the East such subjection was expressed when " Ben-hadad's servants 

 girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came 

 to the King of Israel." In Peru, where the militant type of organiza- 

 tion was pushed to so great an excess, Garcilasso tells us that a sign 

 of humility was to have the hands tied and a rope round the neck ; that 

 is, there was an assumption of those bonds which originally marked 

 captives brought from the battle-field. Along with this mode of simu- 

 lating slavery, another mode was employed when approaching the Ynca: 

 servitude had to be indicated by carrying a burden ; and " this taking 

 up a load to enter the presence of Atahuallpa is a ceremony which was 

 performed by all the lords who have reigned in that land." 



These few extreme instances I give at the outset by way of showing 

 the natural genesis of the obeisance as a means of obtaining mercy ; 

 first from a victor and then from a ruler. An adequate conception of 

 the obeisance, however, includes another element. In the introductory 

 chapter it was pointed out that sundry signs of pleasure, having a 

 physio-psychological origin, which occur in presence of those for whom 

 there is affection, pass into complimentary observances ; because men 

 are pleased by supposing themselves liked, and are therefore pleased 

 by demonstrations of liking. Hence, while aiming to propitiate a su- 

 perior by expressing submission to him, there is generally an endeavor 

 further to propitiate him by exhibiting joy at his presence. Keeping 

 in view, then, both these elements of the obeisance, let us now consider 

 its varieties ; with their political, religious, and social uses. 



Though the loss of power to resist which prostration on the face 

 implies does not reach the utter defenselessness implied by prostration 

 on the back, yet it is sufficiently great to make it a sign of profound 

 submission ; and hence it occurs as an obeisance wherever despotism is 

 unmitigated and subordination slavish. It was found in ancient Amer- 

 ica, where, before a Chibcha cazique, " people had to appear prostrate 

 and with their faces touching the ground." We find it in Africa, where, 

 "when he addresses the king, a Borghoo man stretches himself on the 

 earth as flat as a flounder, in which attitude he lies, kissing the dust, 

 till his business with his sovereign is at an end." Asia furnishes many 

 cases of it : " When preferring a complaint, a Khond or Panoo will 

 throw himself on his face, with hands joined, and a bunch of straw or 

 grass in his mouth ; " and while, in Siam, " before the nobles all subor- 

 dinates are in a state of reverent prostration, the nobles themselves, in 

 the presence of the sovereign, exhibit the same crawling obeisance." 

 Similarly in Polynesia. Falling on the face is a mark of submission 

 among the Sandwich-Islanders : the king did so to Cook when he first 

 met him. And in the records of ancient historic peoples plenty of 

 kindred illustrations are given : as when Mephibosheth fell on his face 

 and did reverence before David ; or when the King of Bithynia fell on 



