OBEISANCES. 135 



him, and yielded themselves to his mercy.&quot; And the doing 

 of feudal homage included observances of kindred meaning. 

 Saint Simon, describing one of the latest instances, and 

 naming among ceremonies gone through the giving up of 

 belt, sword, gloves, and hat, says that this was done &quot; to 

 strip the vassal of his marks of dignity in the presence of 

 his lord.&quot; So that whether it be the putting on of coarse 

 clothing or the putting off of fine clothing, the meaning is 

 the same. 



Observances of this kind, like those of other kinds, ex 

 tend themselves from the feared being who is visible to the 

 feared being who is invisible the ghost and the god. On 

 remembering that by the Hebrews, putting on sackcloth 

 and ashes was joined with cutting the hair, self -bleed ing, 

 and making marks on the body, to propitiate the ghost on 

 reading that the habit continues in the East, so that a 

 mourning lady described by Mr. Salt, was covered with 

 sackcloth and sprinkled with ashes, and so that Burckhardt 

 &quot; saw the female relations of a deceased chief running 

 through all the principal streets, their bodies half naked, 

 and the little clothing they had on being rags, while the 

 head, face, and breast,&quot; were &quot; almost entirely covered with 

 ashes; &quot; it becomes clear that the semi-nakedness, the torn 

 garments, and the coarse garments, expressing submission 

 to a living superior, serve also to express submission to one 

 who, dying and becoming a supernatural being, has so ac 

 quired a power that is dreaded.* This inference is con- 



* For the use of coarse and dintry fabric:? in mourning by Hebrews, Greeks, 

 and Romans, and of inferior clothing by numerous peoples, two causes, both 

 resulting from ghost-propitiation, appear to act separately or jointly. One is 

 the sacrifice of clothes, often the best, at the grave of the dead man, of which 

 instances were given in 103 ; and in further exemplification of which maybe 

 named Mr. Willard s account of a funeral in a Californian tribe, the Sen-el, 

 among whom, by a man, a &quot; quite new and fine &quot; coat, and by women, &quot; their 

 gaudiest dresses &quot; were thrown on the pyre ; or the account by Young of the 

 Blackfcet, who, on such occasions, divested &quot; themselves of clothing even in the 

 coldest weather.&quot; (Dr. II. C. Yarrow s Introduction to the Study of Mortuary 



