192 THE ORIGIN OF BOWINO. 



tive princes; and the phrase derived from this 

 ancient practice has passed, like so many other 

 phrases derived from obsolete ideas, into the com- 

 mon stock of our modern languages. That the 

 foeman's heel is on our necks, or that the rich 

 man puts his foot upon the neck of the poor, is 

 even now a familiar trope of poi)ular oratory. 



From throwing yourself flat on your face upon 

 the earth to bowing low or salaaming, after the 

 fashion of Oriental peoples, is a very easy and 

 natural transition. It is, as it were, an exjjressioii 

 of readiness and willingness to grovel. In every- 

 day life, as soon as men begin to wear clothes, it 

 is inconvenient absolutely to fall on the face, 

 especially out-of-doors; the dust and mud are 

 highly detrimental to the personal ap[)earance in 

 such circumstances. So in time, and among more 

 civilized people, the ceremonial abasement gave 

 way slowly to a sort of shortened and abridged 

 edition, an incipient obeisance or apology for a 

 prostration, the bow or salaam in its full form, as 

 indulged in by Hindoos, Egyptians, and Persians. 

 Knocking ^ne's head against the ground, as is still 

 done in China, is a yet profounder mode of cur- 

 tailed abcisement; it does not go quite so far as 

 the actual prostration of the body in the dust, but 

 it is more suggestively humble, and savors more 

 of complete and utter submission than even 

 the low bow of East Indian servants. Another 



