XVII. 



THE ORIGIN OF BOWING. 



When a little dog sees a big dog advancing 

 towards him in a threatening attitude, he not 

 infre(piently throws himself submissively down 

 upon the ground, rolls on his back with obtrusive 

 humility, fawns and grovels before his possible 

 enemy, and seems to say, with all the eloquent 

 voice of canine pantomime, " You needn't attfick 

 me, great sir. I am beaten already. I am your 

 very obedient humble servant. Let me alone, 

 you mighty conqueror, and go and fight tiie other 

 bad dogs who won't acknowledge jour obvious 

 superiority as readily as I do.'* At first sight 

 there would seem to be but little connection 

 between this familiar action of the small dog 

 before his poweiful neighbor and the human cere- 

 mony of bowing and courtesying. And yet, as 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer has acutely remarked, the 

 two things are in their remote origin practically 

 identical ; the one springs at first from exactly 

 the same instinct as the other. To bow to a man 

 is even now to some extent a mark of respect or 

 an acknowledgment of his official or social superi- 



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