48 THE GESTURE-LANGUAGE. 



going down into tlie sbip's cabin/ and to images of Buddha 

 being kept there^ in Siam, namely, tliat they were insulted by 

 the sailors walking over tkeir beads, and in the custom, also 

 among tbe Tongans, of sitting down wben a chief passed.^ 

 The ancient Egyptian may be seen in the sculptures abbreviat- 

 ing the gesture of touching the ground by merely putting one 

 hand down to his knee in bowing before a superior. A slight 

 inclination of the body indicates submission or reverence, and 

 becomes at last a mere act of politeness, not involving any 

 sense of inferiority at all. This is brought about by that 

 common habit of civilized man, of pretending to a humility 

 that he does not feel, which leads the Chinese to allude to 

 himself in conversation as "the blockhead" or "the thief," 

 and makes our own high official personages write themselves. 

 Sir, your most obedient humble servant, to persons whom they 

 really consider their inferiors. 



With regard to the position of the hands in prayer, there 

 seems to have been a confusion of two gestures quite distinct 

 in their origin. The upturned hands seem to expect some de- 

 sired object to be thrown down, while when clasped or set to- 

 gether they seem to ward off an impending blow. It is not 

 unnatural that mercy or protection should be looked upon as a 

 gift, and that the rustic Phidyle should hold out her supine 

 hands to ask that her vines should not feel the pestilent south- 

 west wind ; but the conventionalizing process is carried much 

 further when the hands clasped or with the finger-tips set to- 

 gether can be used, not only to avert an injury, as seems their 

 natural office, but also to ask for a benefit which they cannot 

 even catch hold of when it comes. 



It is easy enough to give a plausible reason for the custom 

 of taking ofi" the hat as an expression of reverence or polite- 

 ness, by referring it to times when armour was generally worn. 

 To take off the hehnet would be equivalent to disarming, and 

 would indicate, in the most practical manner, either submission 

 or peace. The practice of laying aside arms on entering a 

 house appears in a quotation from the ^Boke of Curtayse,^ 



» Cook, Third Voyage, vol. i. p. 265. 



2 Sir J. Bowring, ' Siam;' Loudon, 1857, vol. i. p. 125. ^ Cook, ib. p. 409. 



