143 CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



tliat &quot; Tlie Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.&quot; Hence 

 as used in worship, the expression u thy servant &quot; lias orig 

 inated as liave all other elements of religious ceremonial. 



And here better than elsewhere, may be noted the fact 

 that the phrase &quot; thy son,&quot; used to a ruler or superior, or 

 other person, is originally equivalent to &quot; thy servant.&quot; 

 On remembering that in rude societies children exist only 

 on sufferance of their parents; and that in patriarchal 

 groups the father had life and death power over his chil 

 dren; we see that professing to be another s son was like 

 professing to be his servant or slave. There are ancient 

 examples demonstrating the equivalence; as when &quot; Aliaz 

 sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, 

 I am thy servant and thy son: come up and save me.&quot; 

 Mediaeval Europe furnished instances when, as we saw, 

 rulers offered themselves for adoption by more powerful 

 rulers: so assuming the condition of filial servitude and 

 calling themselves sons; as did Theodebert I. and Childe- 

 bert II. to the emperors Justinian and Maurice. Xor does 

 there lack evidence that this expression of subordination 

 spreads like the rest, until it becomes a complimentary form 

 of speech. At the present time in India, the man who in 

 compliment professes to be your slave, will, on introducing 

 his son say, &quot; This is your highness s son.&quot; And &quot; a 

 Samoan cannot use more persuasive language than to call 

 himself the son of the person addressed.&quot; 



805. From those complimentary phrases which ex 

 press abasement of self, we pass to those which exalt an 

 other. Either kind taken alone, is a confession of relative 

 inferiority; and this confession gains in emphasis when the 

 two kinds are joined, as they commonly are. 



At first it does not seem likely that eulogies may, like 

 other propitiations, be traced back to the behaviour of the 

 conquered to the conqueror; but we have proof that they 

 do thus originate, certainly in some cases. To the victorious 



