THE ORIGIN OF BOWING. 197 



their necks — a truly barbarous expression of 

 complete submission, surviving strangely into the 

 so-called age of chivalry. In the East it is the 

 shoes rather than the hat or turban that men 

 usually remove as a sign of respect, perhaps be- 

 cause of the danger of sunstroke were they to 

 stand uncovered under an almost tropical sky. 

 In Burmah even at the present day, every Eng- 

 lishman who approaches the king's presence has 

 to do obeisance by taking ofif his shoes, just as in 

 England people kiss the hand of royalty ; and in 

 Persia no one may come near the Shah without 

 baring his feet in token of submission. Shoes are 

 left at the doors of the mosques, exactly as we 

 ourselves uncover our heads in churches; the 

 ceremonial considered appropriate for human kings 

 is everywhere held to be due in a still higher 

 degree on entering the gates of the divine 

 dwelling. 



We thus see that bowing and courtesying are 

 the last relics of an old slavish and savage observ- 

 ance ; and, though among ourselves they have 

 become in the end mere polite and graceful formal- 

 ities, they still retain something of their original 

 meaning in the fact that they are specially due 

 from inferiors to superiors and from the younger 

 to the elder, while mitigated by the peculiar fact 

 that men now chivalrously salute women. Eng- 

 lishmen stand and uncover in the presence of 



