.OBEISANCES. 125 



when his wife came out crawling on her hands and knees 

 till she came to him, and then licked his feet ... all the 

 women in the town saluted their husbands in the same man 

 ner.&quot; Slaves did the like to their masters. So in ancient 

 Peru, &quot;when the chiefs came before [ Atahuallpa] , they 

 made great obeisances, kissing his feet and hands.&quot; Egyp 

 tian wall-paintings represent this extreme homage; and in 

 Assyrian records Sennacherib mentions that Menahem 

 of Samaria came up to bring presents and to kiss his feet. 

 &quot; Kissing his feet &quot; was part of the reverence shown to 

 Christ by the woman with the box of ointment. At the 

 present day among the Arabs, inferiors kiss the feet, the 

 knees, or the garments of their superiors. Kissing the 

 Sultan s feet is a usage in Turkey; and Sir R. K. Porter 

 narrates that in acknowledgment of a present, a Persian 

 &quot; threw himself on the ground, kissed my knees and my 

 feet.&quot; 



Kissing the hand is a less humiliating observance than 

 kissing the feet; mainly, perhaps, because it does not in 

 volve a prostration. This difference of implication is recog 

 nized in regions remote from one another. In Tonga, 

 &quot; when a person salutes a superior relation, he kisses the 

 hand of the party ; if a very superior relation, he kisses the 

 foot.&quot; And the women who wait on the Arabian princesses, 

 kiss their hands when they do them the favour not to suffer 

 them to kiss their feet or the borders of their robes. The 

 prevalence of this obeisance as expressing loving submis 

 sion, is so great as to render illustration superfluous. 



What is implied, where, instead of kissing another s 

 hand, the person making the obeisance kisses his OAVII hand? 

 Does the one symbolize the other, as being the nearest ap 

 proach to it possible under the circumstances? This ap 

 pears a hazardous inference; but there is evidence justify 

 ing it. D Arvieux says 



u An oriental pays his respects to a person of superior station by 

 kissing his hand and putting it to his forehead ; but if the superior be 



