CEREMONY IN GENERAL. 13 



large element of worship; despotic monarchs are addressed 

 in terms of exaggerated eulogy; and where ceremony is 

 dominant in social intercourse, extravagant compliments are 

 addressed to private persons. 



In many of the less advanced societies, and also in the 

 more advanced that have retained early types of organiza 

 tion, we find other examples of observances expressing sub 

 jection, which are common to the three kinds of control 

 political, religious, and social. Among Malayo-Polynesians 

 the offering of the first fish and of first fruits, is a mark of 

 respect alike to gods and to chiefs; and the Fijians make 

 the same gifts to their gods as they do to their chiefs 

 food, turtles, whalers-teeth. In Tonga, &quot; if a great chief 

 takes an oath, he swears by the god; if an inferior chief 

 takes an oath, he swears by his superior relation, who, of 

 course, is a greater chief.&quot; In Fiji, &quot; all are careful not to 

 tread on the threshold of a place set apart for the gods: 

 persons of rank stride over; others pass over on their hands 

 and knees. The same form is observed in crossing the 

 threshold of a chief s house.&quot; In Siam, &quot; at the full moon 

 of the fifth month the Talapoins [priests] wash the idol 

 with perfumed water. . . . The people also wash -the 

 Sancrats and other Talapoins; and then in the families 

 children wash their parents.&quot; China affords good instances. 

 &quot; At his accession, the Emperor kneels thrice and bows nine 

 times before the altar of his father, and goes through the 

 same ceremony before the throne on which is seated the Em 

 press Dowager. On his then ascending his throne, the 

 great officers, marshalled according to their ranks, kneel and 

 bow nine times.&quot; And the equally ceremonious Japanese 

 furnish kindred evidence. &quot; From the Emperor to the low 

 est subject in the realm there is a constant succession of 

 prostrations. The former, in want of a human being supe 

 rior to himself in rank, bows humbly to some pagan idol; 

 and every one of his subjects, from prince to peasant, has 

 some person before whom he is bound to cringe and crouch 



