CHAPTEK V. 



VISITS. 



378. One may go to the house of a blameworthy man 

 to reproach him, or to that of an inferior who is in trouble 

 to give aid, or to that of a reputed oddity to gratify 

 curiosity: a visit is not intrinsically a mark of homage. 

 Visits of certain kinds, however, become extrinsically 

 marks of homage. In its primitive form, making a present 

 implies going to see the person it is made to. Hence, by asso 

 ciation, this act comes to be itself indicative of respect, and 

 eventually acquires the character of a reverential ceremony. 



From this it results that just as the once-voluntary pres 

 ent groAVS into the compulsory present, and ends in tribute 

 periodically paid; so the concomitant visit loses its volun 

 tary character, and, as political supremacy strengthens, be 

 comes an expression of subordination demanded by the 

 ruler at stated intervals. 



379. Xaturally this ceremony takes no definite shape 

 \vhere chiefly power is undecided; and hence is not usual in 

 simple tribes. Even in societies partially compounded, it 

 characterizes less the relations between the common people 

 and the rulers next above them, than the relations between 

 these subordinate rulers and superior rulers. Still there 

 are places where subjects show their local heads the consid 

 eration implied by this act. Some of the Coast Xegroes, 

 the JolofTs for example, come daily to their village chiefs 



108 



