THE GESTURE-LANGUAGE. 51 



find the Damaras, in Soutli Africa, taking off their sandals 

 before entering a stranger's house/ the idea of connecting 

 the practice with the ancient Egyptian custom, or of ascribing 

 it to Moslem influence, at once suggests itself, but the taking 

 off the sandals as a sign of respect seems to have prevailed in 

 Peru. No common Indian, it is said, dared go shod along the 

 Street of the Sun, nor might any one, however great a lord he 

 might be, enter the houses of the sun with shoes on, and even 

 the Inca himself went barefoot into the Temple of the Sun.^ 



In this group of reverential uncoverings, the idea that the 

 subject presents himself naked, defenceless, poor, and miser- 

 able before his lord, seems to be dramatically expressed, and 

 this view is borne out by the practice of stripping, or uncover- 

 ing the head and feet, as a sign of mourning,^ where there can 

 hardly be anything but destitution and misery to be expressed. 



The lowest class of salutations, which merely aim at giving 

 pleasant bodily sensations, merge into the civilities which we 

 see exchanged among the lower animals. Such are patting, 

 stroking, kissing, pressing noses, blowing, sniffing, and so 

 forth. The often described sign of pleasure or greeting of the 

 Indians of North America, by rubbing each other's arms, 

 .breasts, and stomachs, and their own,* is similar to the Central 

 African custom, of two men clasping each other's arms with 

 both hands, and rubbing them up and down,' and that of 

 stroking one's own face with another's hand or foot, in Poly- 

 nesia ; ^ and the pattings and slappings of the Fuegians belong 

 to the same class. Darwin describes the way in which noses 

 are pressed in New Zealand, with details which have escaped 

 less accurate observers.'^ It is curious that Linnaeus found the 

 salutation by touching noses in the Lapland Alps. People did 



' C. J. Andersson, ' Lake Ngami,' e«:c., 2nd ed. ; London, 1856, p. 231. 



* Prescott, History of the Conquest of Peru, 2nd ed. ; London, 1847, vol. i. 

 pp. 97, 78. 



^ Micah i. 8. Ezekiel xxiv. 17. Herod, ii. 85. Eev. J. Eoberts, ' Oriental 

 Illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures,' 2nd ed. ; London, 1844, p. 492, etc. 

 ^ Charlevoix, vol. iii. p. 16 ; vol. vi. p. 189, etc. 



* Burton, ' Lake Regions of Central Africa ; ' London, 1860, vol. ii. p. 69. 

 « Cook, Third Voy., vol. i. p. 179. 



^ Darwin, Journal of Ees., etc. ; London, 1860, pp. 205, 423. 



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