GREETING BY GESTURE. 631 



Both motions, however, are interconnected, and the weight of tes- 

 timony inclines against both of his explanations. Most of his 

 views expressed in his chapters on Ceremonial Institutions are 

 beyond controversy, but regarding some portions in the narrow 

 field of the present discussion there is now more known, through 

 scientifically conducted explorations, than when those chapters 

 were written. It is now possible to approach the subject from a 

 direction to which Darwin led the way in his volume on The Ex- 

 pression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, and from study of 

 the sign-language as still extant among some bodies of men. 



Among several tribes the chief must never see any head more 

 elevated than his own, so that the sitting posture, though one of 

 greater ease, is one of respect. This is mentioned by the French 

 missionaries in 1611 regarding the Iroquois and northern Algon- 

 quins. Sitting and kneeling are more distinct in territory than in 

 concept. The male foot-scrape and the female courtesy, recently 

 common in Europe in connection with the bow, may be relics of 

 kneeling or simply of pretended lowering of the stature. Japan 

 was emphatically the " kneeling country." The very costume of 

 the Tycoon's court required the silk trousers to form an angle at 

 the heels so as to trail far behind, thus simulating kneeling even 

 when walking. But the Japanese habitually did not sit except in 

 a semi-kneeling crouch, so that kneeling was to them the normal 

 mode of lowering the person. In some other countries it was also 

 forbidden to stand erect in the ruler's presence, but sitting took the 

 place of kneeling. In Java sitting down is a mark of respect ; in 

 the Mariana Islands the inferior squats to speak to a superior, who 

 would consider himself degraded by sitting in the presence of one 

 who should be objectively as well as figuratively " below " him. 

 Similar rules of etiquette prevail in Rotouma. Some of the Af- 

 rican kings ingeniously reconcile the relative elevation with their 

 own comfort by sitting down themselves while their subjects squat, 

 kneel, or crouch. Prof. Hovelacque explains the dismounting of 

 Kirghiz horsemen, when they salute, on the principle of descend- 

 ing from an elevation through courtesy. It is, however, probable 

 that such dismounting is required as a measure of precaution, on 

 the same principle that a horseman approaching a military picket 

 is required to dismount before giving the countersign. This is 

 both to insure the countersign being spoken so low as not to be 

 overheard, and also to render less feasible a sudden attack and 

 dash through the lines. 



The relative elevation is an example of what is taught by oral 

 as well as sign language to express the concepts of superior and 

 inferior, above and below, high and low. A Cheyenne sign for 

 "chief" pantomimically shows "he who stands still and com- 

 mands ; " but the most common sign consists in raising the index- 



