FORMS OF ADDRESS. 153 



exalt the person addressed or abase the person addressing. 

 These have certain analogies with other elements of cere 

 mony. &quot;\Ve have seen that where subjection is extreme, 

 the ruler, if he does not keep himself invisible, must, when 

 present, not be looked at; and from the idea that it is an 

 unpardonable liberty to gaze at the supreme person, there 

 has arisen in some countries the usage of turning the back 

 on a superior. Similarly, the practice of kissing the ground 

 before one who is reverenced, or kissing some object be 

 longing to him, implies that the subject is so remote in sta 

 tion, that.he may not take the liberty of kissing even the 

 foot or the dress. And in a kindred spirit, the linguistic 

 forms used in compliment have the trait that they avoid 

 direct relations with the individual addressed. 



Such forms make their appearance in comparatively 

 early social stages. Of the superior people among the Abi- 

 pones, we read that &quot; the names of men belonging to this 

 class end in in; those of the women, who also partake of 

 these honours, in en. These syllables you must add even to 

 substantives and verbs in talking with them.&quot; Again, &quot; the 

 Sanioan language contains a distinct and permanent vo 

 cabulary of words which politeness requires to be made use 

 of to superiors, or on occasions of ceremony. By the 

 Javans, &quot; on no account is any one, of whatever rank, al 

 lowed to address his superior in the common or vernacular 

 language of the country.&quot; And of the ancient Mexican 

 language Gallantin says, there is &quot; a special form, called 

 Reverential, which pervades the whole language, and is 

 found in no other . . . this is believed to be the only one 

 [language] in which every word uttered by the inferior 

 reminds him of his social position.&quot; 



The most general of the indirectnesses which etiquette 

 introduces into forms of address, apparently arise from 

 the primitive superstition about proper names. Conceiving 

 that a man s name is part of his individuality, and that pos 

 session of his name gives power over him, savages almost 



