CHAPTEE VI. 



OBEISANCES. 



383. Concerning a party of Shoshones surprised by 

 them, Lewis and Clarke write &quot; The other two, an elderly 

 woman and a litle girl, seeing we were too near for them to 

 escape, sat on the ground, and holding down their heads 

 seemed as if reconciled to the death which they supposed 

 awaited them. The same habit of holding down the head 

 and inviting the enemy to strike, when all chance of escape 

 is gone, is preserved in Egypt to this day.&quot; Here we are 

 shown an effort to propitiate by absolute submission; and 

 from acts so prompted originate obeisances. 



When, at the outset, in illustration of the truth that 

 ceremony precedes not only social evolution but human 

 evolution, I named the behaviour of a small dog which 

 throws itself on its back in presence of an alarming great 

 dog, probably many readers thought I was putting on this 

 behaAdour a forced construction. They would not have 

 thought so had they known that a parallel mode of beha 

 viour occurs among human beings. Livingstone says of the 

 Batoka salutation &quot; they throw themselves on their backs 

 on the ground, and, rolling from side to side, slap the out 

 side of their thighs as expressions of thankfulness and 

 welcome.&quot; The assumption of this attitude, which implies 

 &quot; You need not subdue me, I am subdued already,&quot; is 

 the best means of obtaining safety. Resistance arouses the 

 destructive instincts; and prostration on the back nega- 



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