THE GESTUEE-LANGUAGE. 47 



the man and wife are joined together^ as tlie corresponding 

 ceremony in the ancient Mexican and the modern Hindoo 

 weddings in which the clothes of the parties are tied together 

 in a knot. Among our own Aryan race, the taking hands was 

 a usual ceremony in niarriage in the Vedic period.^ The idea 

 which shaking hands was originally intended to convey, was 

 clearly that of fastening together in peace and friendship ; and 

 the same thought appears in the probable etymology of peace, 

 jpax, Sanskrit pag, to bind, and in league from ligare. 



Cowering or crouching is so natural an expression of fear or 

 inability to resist, that it belongs to the brutes as well as to 

 man. Among ourselves this natural sign of submission is 

 generally used in the modified forms of bowing and kneeling ; 

 but the analogous gestures found in different countries not 

 only give us the intermediate stages between an actual prostra- 

 tion and a slight bow, but also a set of gestures and cere- 

 monies which are naerely suggestive of a prostration which is 

 not actually performed, The extreme act of lying with the 

 face in the dust is not only usual in China, Siani, etc., but 

 even in Siberia the peasant grovels on the ground and kisses 

 the dust before a man of rank, The Ai'ab only suggests such 

 a humiliation by bending his hand to the ground and then 

 putting it to his lips and forehead,— -a gesture alniost identical 

 with that of the ancient Mexican, who touched the ground with 

 his right hand and put it to his mouth.^ Captain Cook de^ 

 scribes the way of doing reverence to chiefs in the Tonga Is-, 

 lands, which was in this wise : — When a subject approached to 

 do homage, the chief had to hold up his foot behind, as a horse 

 does, and the subject touched the sole with his fingers, thus 

 placing himself, as it were, under the sole of his lord's foot, 

 Every one seemed to have the right of doing reverence in this 

 way when he pleased ; and chiefs got so tired of holding up 

 their feet to be touched, that they would make their escape at 

 the very sight of a loyal subject.^ Other developments of the 

 idea are found in the objection made to a, Polynesian chief 



' Ad. Pictet, ' Orlgines Indo-Europeennes ; " Paris, 1859-63, part ii. p, 336, 



2 A. V. Humboldt, ' Vues des CordiUeres ; ' Paris, 1810, p. 83. 



« Cook, Third Voyage, 2nd ed. ; London, 1785, vol, i. pp. 287, 409, 



