130 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



be bound. The above-described attitude of the Khond ex 

 hibits the proceeding in its original form; and on reading 

 in Hue that &quot; the JMongul hunter saluted us, with his 

 clasped hands raised to his forehead/ or in Drury that when 

 the Malagasy approach a great man, they hold the hands 

 up in a supplicatory form, we cannot doubt that this act 

 now expresses reverence because it originally implied sub 

 jugation. Of the Siamese, La Loubcre says u If you 

 extend your hand to a Siamese, to place it in his, he carries 

 both his hands to yours, as if to place himself entirely in 

 your power.&quot; That presentation of the joined hands has the 

 meaning here suggested, is elsewhere shown. In Unyaii- 

 yembe, u when two of them meet, the Wezee puts both his 

 palms together, these are gently clasped by the Watusi &quot; 

 [a man of more powerful race] ; and in Sumatra, the obei 

 sance &quot; consists in bending the body, and the inferior s 

 putting his joined hands between those of the superior, and 

 then lifting them to his forehead.&quot; By these instances we 

 are reminded that a kindred act was once a form of submis 

 sion in Europe. When doing homage, the vassal, on his 

 knees, placed his joined hands between the hands of his 

 suzerain. 



As in foregoing cases, an attitude signifying defeat and 

 therefore political subordination, becomes an attitude of 

 religious devotion. By the Mahommedan worshipper we 

 are shown that same clasping of the hands above the head 

 which expresses reverence for a living superior. Among 

 the Greeks, &quot; the Olympian gods were prayed to in an up 

 right position with raised hands; the marine gods with 

 hands held horizontally; the gods of Tartarus with hands 

 held down.&quot; And the presentation of the hands joined 

 palm to palm, once throughout Europe required from an 

 inferior when professing obedience to a superior, is still 

 taught to children as the attitude of prayer. 



A kindred use of the hands descends into social inter 

 course; and in the far East the filiation continues to be 



