i 5 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gods among the Romans and of holy images among Christians. An- 

 cient Mexico furnished an instance of the transition from kissing the 

 ground as a political obeisance to a modified kissing the ground as a 

 religious obeisance. Describing the Mexican ceremony of taking an 

 oath, Clavigero says, " Then naming the principal god, or any other 

 they particularly reverenced, they kissed their hand, after having 

 touched the earth with it." In Peru the observance was further abridged 

 by dispensing with any object kissed. D'Acosta says, " The manner 

 of worship was to open the hands, to make some noise with the lips as 

 of kissing, and to ask what they wished, at the same time offering the 

 sacrifice ; " and Garcilasso, describing the libation of a drop of liquor to 

 the sun, made before drinking at an ordinary meal, adds: "At the 

 same time they kissed the air two or three times, which .... was a 

 token of adoration among these Indians." Nor have European races 

 failed to furnish kindred facts : kissing the hand to the statue of a god 

 was a Roman form of adoration. 



Once more, saltatory movements, which, as we have seen, being 

 natural expressions of delight, become complimentary acts before a visi- 

 ble ruler, also become acts of worship before an invisible ruler. In 

 illustration there is the dancing of David before the ark ; and there 

 is the dancing which was originally a religious ceremony among the 

 Greeks : from the earliest times the " worship of Apollo was connected 

 with a religious dance called Hyporchema." We have the fact that 

 King Pepin, "like King David, forgetful of the regal purple, in his joy 

 bedewed his costly robes with tears, and danced before the relics of the 

 blessed martyr." And we have the fact that in the middle ages there 

 were religious dances in churches. 



To interpret another series of associated observances we must go 

 back to the prostration in its original form. I refer to those expressions 

 of submission which are made by putting dust or ashes on some part of 

 the body. 



Men cannot roll over in the sand in front of their king, or repeatedly 

 knock their heads against the ground, or crawl before him, without soil- 

 ing themselves. Hence the adhering dust or earth is recognized as a 

 concomitant mark of subjection ; and comes to be gratuitously assumed, 

 and artificially increased, in the anxiety to propitiate. Already the as- 

 sociation between this act and the act of prostration has been incident- 

 ally exemplified by cases from Africa ; and Africa furnishes other cases 

 which exemplify more fully this self-defiling as a definitely-elaborated 

 form. " In the Congo regions," says Burton, " prostration is made, the 

 earth is kissed, and dust is strewed over the forehead and arms, before 

 every Banza or village chief; and he tells us that the Dahoman saluta- 

 tion consists of two actions prostration and pouring sand or earth upon 

 the head. Similarly we read that " in saluting a stranger they " (the 

 Kakanda people on the Niger) " stoop almost to the earth, throwing dust 



