122 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



going to kneel. When they salute a person of rank, they bend the 

 knee in such a manner as to touch the ground with their fingers.&quot; 

 AVe are shown the same thing equally well, or better, in 

 China; where, among the specified gradations of obei 

 sance, the third is denned as bending the knee, and the 

 fourth as actual kneeling. Manifestly that which still sur 

 vives among ourselves as the curtesy with the one sex, and 

 that which until recently survived with the other sex as the 

 scrape (made by a backward sweep of the right foot), arc 

 both of them vanishing forms of the going down on one 

 knee. 



There remains only the accompanying bend of the body. 

 This, while the first motion passed through in making a 

 complete prostration, is also the last motion that survives as 

 the prostration becomes stage by stage abridged. In 

 various places we meet indications of this transition. 

 &quot; Among the Soosoos, even the wives of a great man, when 

 speaking to him, bend their bodies, and place one hand upon 

 each knee; this is done also when passing by.&quot; In Samoa, 

 &quot; in passing through a room where a chief is sitting, it is 

 disrespectful to walk erect; the person must pass along 

 with his body bent dow r nwards.&quot; Of the ancient Mexicans 

 who, during an assembly, crouched before their chief, we 

 read that &quot; when they retired, it was done with the head 

 lowered.&quot; And then in the Chinese ritual of ceremony, 

 obeisance number two, less humble than bending the knee, 

 is bowing low with the hands joined.&quot; Bearing in mind 

 that there are insensible transitions between the humble 

 salaam of the Hindoo, the profound bow which in Europe 

 shows great respect, and the moderate bend of the head 

 expressive of consideration, we cannot doubt that the famil 

 iar and sometimes scarcely-perceptible nod, is the last trace 

 of the prostration. 



These several abridgments of the prostration which 

 we see occur in doing political homage and social hom 

 age, occur also in doing religious homage. Of the Con- 



