124: CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



movement having like meaning must be added. Already 

 we have seen that jumping, as a natural sign of delight, is a 

 friendly salute among the Fuegians, and that it recurs in 

 Loango as a mark of respect to the king. Africa furnishes 

 another instance. Grant narrates that the king of Karague 

 &quot; received the salutations of his people, who, one by one, 

 shrieked and sprang in front of him, swearing allegiance.&quot; 

 Let such saltatory movements be systematized, as they are 

 likely to be during social progress, and they will constitute 

 the dancing with which a* ruler is sometimes saluted ; as in 

 the before-named case of the king of Bogota, and as in the 

 case Williams gives in his account of Fiji, where an inferior 

 chief and his suite, entering the royal presence, &quot; per 

 formed a dance, which they finished by presenting their 

 clubs and upper dresses to the Somo-Somo king.&quot; 



Of the other simulated signs of pleasure commonly 

 forming part of the obeisance, kissing is the most conspicu 

 ous. This, of course, has to take such form as consists with 

 the humility of the prostration or kindred attitude. As 

 shown in certain foregoing instances, we have kissing the 

 earth when the superior cannot be approached close enough 

 for kissing the feet or the garment. Others may be added. 

 &quot; It is the custom at Eboe, when the king is out, and indeed 

 indoors as well, for the principal people to kneel on the 

 ground and kiss it three times when he passes; &quot; and the 

 ancient Mexican ambassadors, on coming to Cortes, &quot; first 

 touched the ground with their hands arid then kissed it.&quot; 

 This, in the ancient East, expressed submission of con 

 quered to conqueror; and is said to have gone as far as kiss 

 ing the footmarks of the conqueror s horse. Abyssinia, 

 where the despotism is extreme and the obeisances servile, 

 supplies a modification. In Shoa, kissing the nearest inani 

 mate object belonging to a superior or a benefactor, is a 

 sign of respect and thanks. From this we pass to 



licking the feet and kissing the feet. Of a Malagasy chief 

 Drury says &quot; he had scarcely seated himself at his door, 



