GREETING BY GESTURE. 



479 



performance between the low comedian and the soubrette on the 

 stage is probably not immediately connected with the manners 

 of Corea, where, according to H. St. John, " they have no salu- 

 tations except buffeting each other/' The latter may be likened 

 to the proverbial Irish mode of courtship, or with more serious- 

 ness to the love-making of lions, where the pat of the paw is sub- 

 versive. 



In many hot regions, markedly in the New Hebrides and New 

 Guinea, actually sprinkling water by the hand over the friend's 

 head is the best expression of friendship. It was symbolized by 

 canoe-men who, on approaching a vessel, sprinkled toward it the 

 sea-water from their paddles, and the significance, if not other- 

 wise known, would be made clear by the spoken words, meaning 

 " May you be cool ! " It becomes a question how closely this 

 idea is connected with baptism, and how nearly the old gesture 

 of the hand is preserved in those forms of benediction which are 

 not immediately adopted from the figure of the cross. 



In Arabia Petrsea the cheeks are pressed together without 

 the use of the lips or hands ; and the Indians of Texas in 1685 

 were noticed to show affection by blowing against the ear. The 

 Biluchi " embrace " by each laying hands alternately on both 

 shoulders of the other. The mutual embrace of affection can not, 

 however, properly be considered as a mere salutation, because it 

 is a communion practiced wholly unconnected with meeting and 

 parting, but it may explain the origin of some of the salutes 

 made with personal contact. Yet certain reports of the occasion 

 and manner of embraces seem to include them among true salu- 

 tations e. g., men of the Darling River, when friendly, " salute 

 by standing side by side and casting each of them his nearer arm 

 round his fellow's neck." This suggests the concept of union, 

 though it is more commonly and more conveniently expressed by 

 other actions. 



When an Aino returns home after travel, he and his friend 

 put their heads on each other's shoulders ; the elder then lays his 

 hand on the younger's head and strokes it down, gradually draw- 

 ing his hands over the shoulders down the arms and to the tips 

 of the younger's fingers. Until this has been done neither speaks 

 a word. The description would apply to the usual mode of mak- 

 ing hypnotic passes. A similar stroking is performed by the 

 Blackf oot Indians of Canada to express gratification. 



Other salutes of contact were symbolized by a pantomime in 

 which actual contact was omitted. The Eskimos, as La Potherie 

 told in 1753, " jumped, and rubbed their own stomachs," and the 

 Ainos in informal society stroke their own flowing beards at a 

 visitor, as if to signify, " Consider your beard, if you have any, to 

 be duly stroked." 



