THE ORIGIN OF BOWING. 198 



form of the ceremonial symbolism of subjection is 

 to fall upon the knees; and from one of these 

 forms we get our modern bow, while from the 

 other we get the female courtesy. Courtesying is, 

 as it were, a kind of incomplete kneeling, a motion 

 made as if in the direction of falling down on the 

 knees before a lord and master, supposed to be 

 peculiarly ai)propriate to the weaker vessel. It 

 stands to the ceremonial kneeling of Japanese and 

 Eastern servants much as touching the hat or 

 raising one hand gingerly to the brim stands to 

 the more deliberate and formal salutation we give 

 to ladies, or as a friendly nod or a master's slight 

 inclination of recognition stands to the deferential 

 bow of a servant or inferior. Scraping among 

 men, seen even now among a few rustics, who 

 always draw back the riglit foot as they bow, is 

 another faint relic of the kneeling ceremony. In 

 fact, whenever we now bow to an acquaintance, 

 we are using in an abridged and purely polite 

 form an ancient prostration which once meant, " I 

 am your slave and captive. I am beaten and con- 

 quered. Do as you please with me. I will not 

 resist you. Kill me or command me." Like the 

 equally meaningless phrases, "Yours to com- 

 mand," or "I am, sir, your obedient servant," it 

 is a long survival from an earlier and more servile 

 stage, and it points back at last to a very rude 

 and savage origin. 



