OBEISANCES. 



to get more heads for decorating the king s palace. Among 

 states more advanced they occur in Burmah and Siam, 

 where the militant type, bequeathed from the past, has left 

 a nionarchial power without restraint; in Japan, where 

 there has been a despotism evolved and fixed during the wars 

 of early times; and in China, where a kindred form of gov 

 ernment, similarly originated, survives. The like happens 

 with kissing the feet as an obeisance. This was the usage in 

 ancient Peru, where the entire nation was under a regi 

 mental organization and discipline. It prevails in Mada 

 gascar, where the militant structure and activity are de 

 cided. And among sundry Eastern peoples, living still, as 

 they have ever done, under autocratic rule, this obeisance 

 exists at present as it existed in the remote past. NOY is it 

 otherwise with complete or partial removals of the dress. 

 The extreme forms of this we saw occur in Fiji and in 

 Uganda; while the less extreme form of baring the body 

 down to the waist was exemplified from Abyssinia and Ta 

 hiti, where the kingly power, though great, is less recklessly 

 exercised. So, too, with baring the feet. This was an obei 

 sance to the king in ancient Peru and ancient Mexico, as it 

 is now in Burmah and in Persia all of them having the 

 despotic government evolved by militancy. And the like 

 relation holds with the other servile obeisances the putting 

 dust on the head, the assumption of mean clothing, the tak 

 ing up a burden to carry, the binding of the hands. 



The same truth is shown us on comparing the usages of 

 European peoples in early ages, when war was the business 

 of life, with the usages which obtain now that war has 

 ceased to be the business of life. In feudal days homage 

 was shown by kissing the feet, by going on the knees, by 

 joining the hands, by laying aside sundry parts of the 

 dress; but in our days the more humble of these obeisances 

 have, some quite and others almost, disappeared: leaving 

 only the bow, the curtsey, and the raising of the hat, as 

 their representatives. Moreover, it is observable that be- 



