198 THE OBJGIN OF BOWING. 



decent clotliing. There are countries where 

 slaves must always appear naked at least before 

 the faces of chiefs and kings, and others where 

 their inferiority is marked only by their less 

 amount of clothing, and by the upper half of the 

 body being left uncovered. From this beginning 

 every intermediate stage occurs, somewhere or 

 other in the world, up to the mere formal lifting 

 of a hat or cap as a mark of politeness or a token 

 of inferiority. In Abyssinia and in some of the 

 South Sea Islands, whenever common clay meets 

 a great chief strutting along with all his follow- 

 ers, common clay unclothes itself down to its 

 dusky waist, as if to say, " We are your slaves. 

 Take our clothes; they are yours; we yield them up 

 to you with a good grace I " In all the countries 

 where men wear liats, they remove their hats also 

 as well as their upper garments; and to stand 

 with one's hat on in the presence of a superior 

 has always been considered even in civilized 

 countries a specially unwarrantable piece of inso- 

 lence. To be bareheaded is the mark of servi- 

 tude ; and so, when King Edward, in that very 

 un chivalrous fit of vulgar spite, demanded expia- 

 tion on the part of the burgesses of Calais for 

 their long and gallant resistance, Eustache de St. 

 Pierre and his brave companions were brought 

 before him bare of head, stripped to their 

 shirts, and with halters of rope fastened round 



