GREETING BY GESTURE. 4.85 



high as the top of the head ; or the index-fingers of both hands 

 may be used similarly. 



A form of expressing friendship accompanied by adoption was 

 reported in 1837 from a Texan tribe. The oldest chief took the 

 white visitor " by the right hand and commenced a sort of ma- 

 nipulation up the arm, grasping it strongly, as if feeling the mus- 

 cles at short distances quite up to the shoulder." The visitor was 

 obliged to do the same to the chief, and to exchange the same cere- 

 mony with all the other chiefs. The Murray-Islanders of Torres 

 Strait do not clasp hands, but each gently scrapes with his finger- 

 nails against the palm of the other's hand. These performances 

 remind of certain secret society " grips," and they may have been 

 absolutely on that principle, as many American and some Poly- 

 nesian tribes have mystic, generally religious, secret societies 

 similar to those of Europe and Asia. 



A curious custom of the Ainos may be explained either on the 

 theory of magnetic rubbing or on that of producing union by 

 trituration : A strange Aino is received by the head man of the 

 village visited. Both kneel down, and, laying their hands to- 

 gether, rub them backward and forward. Neither says a word 

 before the ceremony is completed. 



Smell. The sense of smell, though intimately connected 

 with that of taste, is remarkably acute among the lower tribes 

 of men, therefore probably its exhibition in gesture-speech is 

 at least as ancient as the similar exhibition of the sense of 

 taste. 



Smelling and sniffing come early among known salutations, 

 and are still common. Those actions among subhuman animals 

 on their meeting are so well known that comparison is needless. 

 The wants and habits of civilized but not thoroughly cultured 

 life have diminished the functions of smell, and tobacco-smoking, 

 among other usages, has impaired its organs. But relics of the 

 importance once attached to smell are yet found. In Siam there 

 is a rule which might be imitated to advantage. On the approach 

 of an inferior the superior sends one of his attendants to examine 

 whether the visitor has eaten or carries with him anything of an 

 offensive odor. If so, he is refused admission. A remarkable 

 contrast to most of the American Indians regarding scents has 

 lately been reported from British Columbia. Immediately before 

 the expected arrival of friends the tribesmen clean their habita- 

 tions and bathe, so that no bad odor remains to offend the guests. 

 They also take repeated baths before religious ceremonies, so that 

 their redolence may be agreeable to the Dairnon invoked. This 

 concept recalls the still existing Gaelic belief that the fairies are 

 pleased by sweet odors and cleanliness, and are driven off by the 

 opposite. Neither of these examples relates to the use of any cere- 



