GREETING BY GESTURE. 4 8i 



" hand-shaking" but hand-taking and pressing. The French ex- 

 pressions are "server la main" and " donner une poignee," or 

 more fully " echanger une poignee de main." The translated Gaelic 

 phrase is " Give me the hand," and the German is " Hand reichen " 

 or " Hand geben." The quotation so often made from Virgil, where 

 ^Eneas says to his father Anchises, " Da jungere dextram," indi- 

 cates only union. It does not appear that any language but Eng- 

 lish has the familiar and colloquial form "shake hands " or its 

 equivalent, and this is because the hands are not often shaken 

 among other than English-speaking peoples. No more motion is 

 normally employed than is needed to give emphasis, that is, pres- 

 sure, to the union, and, except when the gesture is made by awk- 

 ward persons, the pump-handle is not put into operation. Cases 

 of great excitement, real or simulated, formed exceptions, and the 

 ostensible, perhaps ostentatious, motions derived from such ex- 

 ceptional cases must be classed as extrinsic to the intent and un- 

 related to the origin of the gesture. 



When it is considered necessary to do something obvious in 

 connection with the grasp, as if to proclaim that the act of peace 

 and good-will is performed, peoples not of English origin and not 

 under English influence have devices differing from the " shake." 

 On the Niger the ceremony is completed by the two parties taking 

 loose hold of the fingers of each other's hands and then slipping 

 them, making at the same time a snapping noise with the aid of 

 the thumb. In the same region the Lander party complained of 

 being obliged to " crack fingers " along with other ceremonies. 

 According to Schweinfurth, the Niam-Niam and the Monbutto 

 extended their right hands on meeting, " and joined them in 

 such a way that the two middle fingers cracked." The action 

 is essentially not hand-taking, still less hand-shaking, the ob- 

 ject being to join in making a noise by the fingers to emphasize 

 union. 



A parallel exhibition of the savage idea that satisfaction 

 should not be silent is in the still extant custom of those Bedouins 

 who pride themselves on their breeding. When they sip coffee 

 they make a noise with their lips such as a horse makes in drink- 

 ing, which among them is the criterion of the man accustomed to 

 the usages of polite society ; he who is in the habit of sipping it 

 noiselessly being regarded as a person whose social education has 

 been neglected. The Zuili and other Indians, whose sole test of 

 festal enjoyment is in repletion, show their gratification by pro- 

 nounced and elaborate eructations. 



It must be noticed that a mutual struggle for the privilege of 

 kissing the hand could only occur in contention of courtesy be- 

 tween equals. It would be a sign of displeasure for the recog- 

 nized superior to withdraw his hand from his inferior ; and special 

 vol. xxxviii. 33 



