CHAPTEE XII. 



CEREMONIAL RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 



427. We find, then, that rules of behaviour are not 

 results of conventions at one time or other deliberately 

 made, as people tacitly assume. Contrariwise, they are 

 natural products of social life which have gradually evolved. 

 Apart from detailed proofs of this, we find a general proof 

 in their conformity to the laws of Evolution at large. 



In primitive headless groups of men, such customs as 

 regulate conduct form but a small aggregate. A few natu 

 rally prompted actions on meeting strangers; in certain 

 cases bodily mutilations; and in some interdicts on foods 

 monopolized by adult men; constitute a brief code. But 

 with consolidation into compound, doubly compound, and 

 trebly compound societies, there arise great accumulations 

 of ceremonial arrangements regulating all the actions of 

 life there is increase in the mass of observances. 



Originally simple, these observances become progres 

 sively complex. From the same root grow up various kinds 

 of obeisances. Primitive descriptive names develop into 

 numerous graduated titles. From aboriginal salutes come, 

 in course of time, complimentary forms of address adjusted 

 to persons and occasions. Weapons taken in Avar give origin 

 to symbols of authority, assuming, little by little, great 

 diversities in their shapes. While certain trophies, differ 

 entiating into badges, dresses and decorations, eventually in 

 each of these divisions present multitudinous varieties, no 



