CEREMONY IN GENERAL. 17 



an affection which is gratified by the gustatory sensation. 

 No act of this kind on the part of an inferior creature, as of 

 a cow licking her calf, can have any other origin than the 

 direct prompting of a desire which gains by the act satis 

 faction; and in such a case the satisfaction is that which 

 vivid perception of offspring gives to the maternal yearning. 

 In some animals like acts arise from other forms of affection. 

 Licking the hand, or, where it is accessible, the face, is a 

 common display of attachment on a dog s part; arid when 

 we remember how keen must be the olfactory sense by 

 which a dog traces his master, we cannot doubt that to his 

 gustatory sense, too, there is yielded some impression an 

 impression associated with those pleasures of affection 

 which his master s presence gives. The inference 



that kissing, as a mark of fondness in the human race, has a 

 kindred origin, is sufficiently probable. Though kissing is 

 not universal though the Negro races do not understand it, 

 and though, as we have seen, there are cases in which sniff 

 ing replaces it yet, being common to unlike and widely- 

 dispersed peoples, we may conclude that it originated in 

 the same manner as the analogous action among lower 

 creatures. Here, however, we are chiefly concerned to 

 observe the indirect result. From kissing as a natural sign 

 of affection, there is derived the kissing which, as a means of 

 simulating affection, gratifies those who are kissed; and, by 

 gratifying them, propitiates them. Hence an obvious root 

 for the kissing of feet, hands, garments, as a part of cere 

 monial. 



Feeling, sensational or emotional, causes muscular con 

 tractions, which are strong in proportion as it is intense; 

 and, among other feelings, those of love and liking have an 

 effect of this kind, which takes on its appropriate form. The 

 most significant of the actions hence originating is not much 

 displayed by inferior creatures, because their limbs are 

 unfitted for prehension; but in the human race its natural 

 genesis is sufficiently manifest. Mentioning a mother s 



