138 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



These simulated signs of joy become civilities where there 

 is no difference of rank. According to Grant, &quot; when a 

 birth took place in the Toorkee cam]) . . . women assem 

 bled to rejoice at the door of the mother, by clapping their 

 hands, dancing, and shouting. Their dance consisted in 

 jumping in the air, throwing out their legs in the most un 

 couth manner, and flapping their sides with their elbows.&quot; 

 Where circumstances permit, such emphatic marks of con 

 sideration become mutual. On the Slave Coast, &quot; when two 

 persons of equal condition meet each other, they fall both 

 down on their knees together, clap hands, and mutually sa 

 lute, by wishing each other a good day.&quot; In China, during 

 a wedding visit &quot; each visitor prostrated himself at the feet 

 of the bride, and knocked his head upon the ground, saying 

 at the same time, ( I congratulate you! I congratulate you! 

 whilst the bride, also upon her knees, and knocking her 

 head upon, the ground, replied, i I thank you! I thank 

 you! And among the Mosquitos, says Bancroft, one 

 will throw himself at the feet of another, who helps him up, 

 embraces him, and falls down in his turn to be assisted up 

 and comforted with a pressure.&quot; Such extreme instances 

 yield verifications of the inference that the mutual bows, 

 and curtseys, and unhattings, among ourselves, are rem 

 nants of the original prostrations and strippings of the 

 captive. 



But I give these instances chiefly as introducing the 

 interpretation of a still more familiar observance. Already 

 I have named the fact that between polite Arabs the offer 

 of an inferior to kiss a superior s hand, is resisted by the 

 superior if he is condescending, and that the conflict ends 

 by the inferior kissing his own hand to the superior. 

 Further evidence is given by Malcolm, who says: 

 &quot; Everyone [Arab] who met a friend took his right hand, 

 and, after shaking it, raised it as high as his breast.&quot; And 

 the following, from Xiebuhr, is an account of an allied 



