148 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his face before the Roman Senate. In some cases this attitude of the 

 conquered before the conqueror, thus used to signify entire subjection? 

 has its meaning emphasized by repetition. Bootan supplies an in- 

 stance : " They .... made before the rajah nine prostrations, which is 

 the obeisance paid to him by his subjects whenever they are permitted 

 to approach." 



Every kind of ceremony is apt to have its primitive character ob- 

 scured by abridgment ; and by abridgment this profoundest of obei- 

 sances is rendered a less profound one. In the assumption of a full- 

 length prostration there is, almost of necessity, the passage through an 

 attitude in which the body is on the knees with the head on the ground ; 

 and still more on rising, a drawing up of the knees is a needful prelimi- 

 nary to raising the head and getting on the feet. Hence this attitude 

 may be considered as an incomplete prostration. It is a very general 

 one. Among the Coast negroes, if a native " goes to visit his supe- 

 rior, or meets him by chance, he immediately falls on his knees, and 

 thrice successively kisses the earth, claps his hands, wishes the superior 

 a good day or night, and congratulates him." Laird tells us that, in 

 acknowledgment of his inf erioritj', the king of the Brass people never 

 spoke to the king of the Ibos " without going down on his knees, and 

 touching the ground with his head." At Embomma, on the Congo, 

 " the mode of salutation is by gently clapping the hands, and an infe- 

 rior at the same time goes on his knees and kisses the bracelet on the 

 superior's ankle." 



Often the humility of this obeisance is increased by emphasizing 

 the contact of the head with the earth. On the Lower Niger, " as a 

 mark of great respect, men prostrate themselves, and strike their heads 

 against the ground." When, in past times, the Emperor of Russia 

 was crowned, the nobility did homage by " bending down their heads, 

 and knocking them at his feet to the very ground." In China, at the 

 present time, among the eight obeisances, increasing in humility, the 

 fifth is kneeling and striking the head on the ground ; the sixth, kneel- 

 ing and thrice knocking the head, which again doubled makes the sev- 

 enth, and trebled, the eighth : this last being due to the emperor and 

 to Heaven. Of old, among the Hebrews, repetition had a kindred 

 meaning. Remembering that this obeisance is variously exemplified, 

 as when Nathan " bowed himself before the king with his face to the 

 ground," and as when Abigail did the like to David, and Ruth to Boaz, 

 we have the additional fact that " Jacob bowed himself to the ground 

 seven times, until he came near to his brother." 



From what has gone before it will be anticipated that this attitude 

 of the conquered man, used by the slave before his master and the sub- 

 ject before his ruler, becomes that of the worshiper before his deity. 

 The East, past and present, yields sufficient examples. That complete 

 prostration is made, whether the being to be propitiated is visible or 

 invisible, is shown us in Hebrew records by the statement that " Abra- 



