and letting life flit lazily and delightfully

away.

99 66

In Spain we approach nearer to the Oriental than in any other country which can strictly be termed European, and consequently we meet with more distinct traces of the East in its salutations. The Divine name is frequently used, and the prayer for long life is not uncommon. In Vaya con Dios, señor, "Go with God, señor," we seem to detect Eastern religiousness and Castilian haughtiness combined. The constant use of Vuestra merced, “Your mercy, Your grace, e.g., "I kiss my hands to your grace, exhibits the contrast between the grave, somewhat curt reverence of the Spaniard and the diffusiveness of the Italian. His punctilio also is illustrated by the fact that the Vuestra merced is contracted into Usted, a proof of its perpetual and wellnigh burdensome use. The peculiar influence of the Roman Catholic religion upon the Spanish mind finds its counterpart in their salutations. For instance, a few years ago it was de rigueur, on entering or leaving a house to say "Ave, Maria purissima!" to which the reply was made" Sine peccato concepta.'

Comment vous portez-vous? How do you carry yourself?" Is not this the phrase of a nation that has striven chiefly after outward grace? Unjust as it would be, in the easy and sweeping style which is so common, to fling at the French people the charge of flippancy, superficiality, and incapacity for seriousness, yet I think no one will be found to deny that, in their past history, they have given the impression of caring for show more than for reality, for the theatrical rather than the practical, for the how they did a thing rather than what the thing was. But now the time past of their life has sufficed for them," we trust, to prate and vapor about la gloire, and to tear one another in pieces for the color of a flag. There is an air of eager triviality, too, about the sound and sense of Comment ça va-t-il, "How goes it?" Far more calm and self-contained is the semi-Latin Gascon, when in his Commo vas? he saves his breath, and does not skip and hop over an infinity of little words.

66

I suppose there is some connection between the comment ça va-t-il and the com

man, and the wie geht's and wie befinden Sie sich of the German. But they conjure up, for the fancy at any rate, different ideas according to the different characteristics of the two nations. If the French somewhat less usual greeting comment ça va-t-il ? "How goes it?" ́unveils to us the abstraction and speculation, the logic, too inexorable for facts, experience, and friction, of the typical Frenchman, how much more may this be said of wie geht's, the habitual familiar greeting of the cloud-inhabiting German? How goes it? Not "how go you?" but "how goes it?" Paul Richter said that to the German nation was reserved the empire of the air. If Socrates brought philosophy down from the clouds, the Germans have in a sense taken it up again. 'How goes it?" "the great abstraction, that which permeates our lives and shapes our ends,' the great omnipresent and omnipotent ȧváyŋ, the eternal not-ourselves that makes for every thing conceivable and inconceivable? And wie befinden Sie sich, too, brings before us the everlasting investigation of the German spectaclecompelling night-lamp, and explains to us the higher criticism of the Tübingen school, and the rationale of Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer. There is, moreover, a tone of simplicity, familiarity, and equality about the bluff hearty wie geht's which reminds one of the times "when there was not much difference in thought, accent, or idiom between the Prince of Saxe-Pumpernickelhausen and his Seerne Highness's postilion." Would you expect a more characteristic salutation from the square-shouldered Mein Herr as he receives you with open arms in his Bierbrauerei, a high-art pipe dangling from his mouth, with a portrait of the Kaiser or Martin Luther upon it, a Flasche Bier in front of his capacious ventricle; while as he raises his glass to meet the glass of his lieber Freund, his big-boned physiognomy gleams through the spectacled eyes with a genial sense of brotherhood and fatherland? And as he says good-by to you in the Kirschwasser Strasse, and raises his cotton-velvet above his head with a Leben Sie wohl, you can take in all at once with eye and ear that there was a time when good living was the beau-idéal of German life;

the long sederunts at their dinner-parties bearing witness that the old paths are not yet altogether forsaken. And when we recall Sir Francis Head's summary of German cuisine, "Whatever is not sour is greasy, and whatever is not greasy is sure to be sour," we are not surprised that "we are introduced to the Sprisesaal with the salutation good appetite,' and dismissed from it with the parting prayer for good digestion.'

The Low Dutch greeting, "How fare you?" "How travel you?" is a most suggestive representation of Dutch history and manners. It will not let us forget the naval and commercial commonwealth,"occupying" (as says Motley) "a small portion of Europe, but conquering a wide empire by the private enterprise of trading companies, girdling the world with its innumerable dependencies, in Asia, Africa, America, and Australia-exercising sovereignty in Brazil, Guiana, the West Indies, New York, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Hindostan, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, and New Holland-a commonwealth which was the precursor of the English scheme of empire, and which bequeathed its chief characteristics, resistance to dogmatism and despotism, to the Great Republic of the West." Was it not consistent with the fitness of things that the nation whose ships thus explored the world "from China to Peru" should have the salutation"How travel you ?"

But of all salutations, none perhaps is more characteristic than the AngloSaxon "How do you do?" It has been our meeting-word ever since the days of the restless Plantagenet. It contains in itself the essence of productive existence, national and individual—it is the formula of activity; it is the correlative of the All right! Right away! of the English railway-guard, and the Go-ahead! of the Yankee boiler-burster. It accounts for the British Constitution, Magna Charta, and the Great Rebellion; for the steamengine and the telegraph; for Trafalgar, Waterloo, Commodore Vanderbilt, and the Grand Pacific Railway; for the Times, Punch, the New York Herald, and even for the Matrimonial News. "How are you?" is less active in appearance, and may perhaps represent the opposite side of the English character, the phlegmatic, “let alone" side. On

the other hand, it may exhibit the national restlessness in another phase. It has been suggested that it may imply a constant inquiry on your own part before you can answer such a question; a ceaseless reckoning with yourself not only in reference to your present state, but to its connected past and future. The great problem of the whence, why, and whither may be contained in the three words, "How are you?''

The secularizing tendency of English social life—and I do not here mean to confound secular with atheistic, according to the practice of some good and well-meaning people, but I mean that tendency born of our natural reserve, which inclines us to estimate religious feeling in inverse proportion to religious froth-this tendency, I say, may account partially, as has been before hinted, for the curtailment of certain salutations which originally contained the name of God. Such a secularization of the outward is not necessarily an unmixed good, but it is at any rate less revolting than "God save you," in the mouth of a Falstaff, or the Pax vobiscum of a fuddled friar.

Is not the canny and inquisitive Scot betrayed in his peculiar formula, "Hoo's a' wi' ye?" Not content with the knowledge of how you are yourself, he wants to know the condition of all your surroundings. Perhaps inquisitiveness is nowhere developed so fully as across the Border; especially does Sandy feel that he has a right to all information concerning you, if he is within the sixty-third longitudinal line of relationship. And inquisitiveness is first-cousin to canniness. Sandy will know "hoo's a' wi' ye"-your whiskey before he will consent to dine with you, as well as your bank balance before he will consent to do business with you.

The Irishman's "Long life to your honor; may you make your bed in glory!" proves by its first member his Oriental kinship more conclusively than all the mythical blarney of his genealogical tables. The second member of the salutation appears to be the offspring of a religion which, with most Irishmen at all events, is more or less materialistic in its foundation and prospects.

The only remaining European salutations which call for any remark are those

of the Slavs; and here our attention is attracted chiefly by the absence of originality. As far as I can ascertain, Russians, Poles, Bulgarians, Servians, et hoc genus omne, of whom " we have lately heard so much," cannot boast a single salutation which may fairly be considered their own. Peace be to you,' ""The Lord be praised," answered by "World without end. Amen, are all borrowed from the early Christianity of Constantinople. Be well," 'How hast thou thyself?" "How dost thou live on?" are, it need hardly be said, equally unoriginal. Art thou gay?" again, is merely an adaptation of the Greek xaipɛ. But is not all this consistent with the history of the race, as a whole? Does not Mr. Carlyle say that the great faculty of the Russian nation is a capacity for submission? Perhaps the faculty is wearing out just now, but the statement is true of the not distant past, whether or not the ancient preamble to petitions be authentic which Mr. Spencer quotes with some Do not order our heads to be cut off, O mighty Lord, for presuming to address you, but hear us!" The Slavs have not, broadly speaking, shown originality either in government, or in religion, or in industry. Perhaps when the contagious example of surrounding nations has effected them more vitally, their salutations, if never original, may cease to begin with "Your slave," "Your serf," or to degrade the old Greek salutation of xaipe into the craven supplication for "pardon."

reserve:

One word, before leaving Europe, in reference to the practice of shaking hands. Mr. Spencer traces the origin of the custom to the movement which would be likely to occur if each of two persons desired to draw the hand of the other to his lips, and each at the same time endeavored to withdraw his own hand, in deprecation of the submissive salutation. This solution, I feel bound to say, appears to me to prove chiefly the difficulty of finding a solution at all. Would it not be better to imagine that the offer and acceptance of a swordless hand indicated peace and brotherhood, the grasp of the hand being a demonstration that it contained no weapon at the time? I have some recollection, though I cannot verify it, that the salute was so regarded at all events among the Norsemen. The

shaking could easily be the hearty outcome of the earlier seizing. It is not uncommon in the East to seize the hand, but among Teutonic nations only is it usual to shake-hands. Of course the usage has found its way into other nations, but so contrary is it to their instinct that, in France, for example, a society has been recently formed to abolish "le shake-hands" as a vulgar English innovation. The old French noblesse, of whom the Legitimists are perhaps the only true representatives, do not make a practice of shaking hands, neither is the custom so common among the Republicans as among the Bonapartists, who, with Napoleon III. for their leader, have always affected English manners. In the " shake-hands" we see, I am inclined to think, brevity and heartiness combined-a characteristic salutation of nations that are energetic, full of business, rather matter-of-fact, and cordial without effusiveness.

And now, following the migration from the Euphrates valley eastward, I have to notice one or two salutations from Hindostan and Ceylon.

From the Mohammedan, the fighting, ruling inhabitants of India comes, it would appear, our "sign-post" military salute: he raises his right hand to his forehead and makes the fingers touch it. This, it may be supposed, is a substitute on the part of a starched and sturdy soldier for a bow or prostration. The salute of the subject, passive Hindoo is different. In the presence of a Brahmin he raises his folded hands to his forehead, touching it with the balls of his thumbs-a much more comprehensive and submissive style of salutation-and utters at the same moment the word "prostration."' In South India the inferior prostrates himself with extended arms, crying out, "The eight limbs together!" This is perhaps the most comprehensive and dramatic form in which an Oriental expresses his abject lack of independence.

In Ceylon, besides the usual Eastern wishes for good health and long life, both Singhalese and Tamil have a curious substitution for "good-by." It is, "I will go and come. "Is this characteristic of the great pleasure which the Easterns find in hospitality and which the departing friend takes for granted? Or does it merely represent the kindred feeling

that the guest confers an honor upon the host? This salutation reminds one of the French au revoir; though au revoir might be considered a slight impertinence if addressed in the Singhalese sense to your host as you leave his house. The salutation of the Chinese, "Have you eaten your rice?" requires no comment. Their greetings are usually, however, most elaborate, and worthy of that paradise of competitive examination, embodied unnaturalness, and absolute subserviency to the powers that be. Their set phrases and postures are rigorously prescribed by an Academy of Compliments, the exact number of speeches and obeisances being calculated with the strictest accuracy. One gesture is as follows: "The saluting person clasps his hands together, holds them out, shakes them gently, bends forward, and says, 'Chin, chin ;'"' that is to say, Please, please," which is equivalent to "Thank you," and also to "Good-by," and is used for both ave and vale. The national primness comes out in all this elaboration; the national humbleness also appears in the rule-observed likewise in over-governed Japan and Siam-by which they avoid in salutation the first and second persons of the pronouns, whether personal or possessive, using at the same time depreciatory terms for themselves and complimentary epithets for the person addressed. Thus the saluter, if he be young, may style himself "the stupid younger brother;" if he be

old,

9966

66

66

99 66

the old stupid," "the old putrescence." A wife calls herself "a mean concubine;" a relative, in saluting his relatives, describes himself as "the tail of relationship." "My house" is "the tattered shed ;' my wife the stupid thorn," "the mountain (.e., the uncultivated) wife;" my opinion" is "the stupid opinion," the venturesome saying;" "my son" is "the grass insect.' The person saluted is, if respectable, "he beneath whose feet the speaker is, "he who rides in a carriage. A father is "the great old gentleman;" the emperor is "the sire of myriad years.' Your father" is "the honorable graybeard," "the honorable severity "your mother" is "the good gentleness,' the good hall of longevity;" your daughter,' "the thousand pieces of gold." A minister is" balcony-under"

46

i.e., he under whose gallery we wait.* All this abjectness is not unsuited to a country in which a primeval, patriarchal civilization is blended mysteriously with such a primeval, patriarchal barbarism that life is considered of comparatively trivial consequence, grass insects' are daily dropped over boat-sides, and a wholesale decapitation is looked upon as part of a Mandarin's morning programme.

The Japanese, whose verbal salutations have much in common with the Chinese, take off their slippers when they meet-a reminiscence, of course, of holy ground where mortal worshippers were not worthy to wear their shoes; and a practice most natural in a country where the Mikado is as much a god as a man. The salutation, “Do not hurt me," is another outcome of the despotism which has nowhere been so absolute for so many centuries as in China, Siam, and Japan.

The farrago of my libellus may excusably be concluded with a few fragmentary salutations which I have not fitted in with what has been already written. Certain islanders near the Philippines, I am told, take the foot of him they salute, and with it gently rub the face. This appears to be only a variation of the foot upon the head or neck; but the rubbing is curious. May we remember, in connection with it, in connection with it, "the grinding of the faces of the poor" which we read of in the prophet Isaiah? Perhaps, however, the movement is meant only to extend over a greater area the symbolical expression of submission. In New Guinea leaves of trees are placed on the heads of those who are saluted. This practice, with the converse one, which Mr. Spencer mentions, of the saluters themselves wearing the leaves branches, may be accounted for as having originally demonstrated the absence of weapons in the hands of those so decorating themselves or others; but why this form of salutation should obtain specially in New Guinea, does not seem easy to explain. In some of the South Sea Islands it is held to be the height of politeness to fling a jar of water over the

or

*I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Legge, of Oxford, for a long list of Chinese salutations, from which the above extracts have been made.

head of your friend. Obviously this can only be for purposes of grateful cooling, and though the salutation might seem suitable for all hot countries, it is clear, nevertheless, that such a custom could hardly prevail where clothing was not at the minimum. Has the desire to cool the saluted person any thing to do with the salutation of certain African tribes, among whom he who salutes strips the other of his robe and ties it about his own waist? However it may be, this manner of greeting can exist only in savage countries, and where there is no chance of catarrh ; but the origin of the custom lies, no doubt, in that of covering the face when in the presence of a superior being. The converse custom, likewise African, as well as Tahitean, of unclothing one's self, can easily be understood as an extreme form of taking off the shoes. Western nations content themselves with removing the hat, .temporarily in the street (where the movement frequently degenerates into a mere touch), and permanently when entering a house. Perhaps when the hatless negro takes the comb out of his hair and then replaces it, he is actuated by a similar desire to show respect. On the other hand, in the cracking and snapping of fingers with which the members of certain negro tribes salute one another, we may reasonably discern the tendency to express joy by noise resulting from muscular action, just as the clapping of hands among ourselves is the usual token of approbation. The salutation of the Moor on horseback, when he meets a stranger, is strongly indicative of the suspiciousness engendered by centuries of almost ceaseless fighting, and reminds us that the Ishmaelitish tinge is strong in his blood. He makes for the stranger at the top of his speed, as if to ride him down; then suddenly pulls up, and fires his pistol over the stranger's head, thus paying him the compliment of recognizing a friend instead of a foe.

The salutations of the aborigines of America do not exhibit many distinct peculiarities. The brief greeting, "Well,' which Mr. Spencer refers to the Dacotah

The

Indians, is characteristic of a tribe where "liberty, equality, and fraternity" seem to have rendered unnecessary all expressions of propitiation or servility. "pipe of peace" has its local habitation naturally on a continent where tobacco was grown and smoked for centuries before the venture of Columbus. The sympathetic sighs and yells with which two tribes of North American Indians greet one another, after a deputation of the two eldest of each tribe have advanced to meet each other and to recount their stories of danger and loss, are not so strange a form of salutation when we consider the chronic bloodshed of the war-path and the trail. The "jumping up and down" of the Fuegians may be paralleled in Loango, and is, after all, only an animal and childlike manifestation of delight not at all unnatural in an unreserved and agile savage. The morning salute on the Orinoco, which Mr. Spencer quotes from Humboldt, "How have the mosquitoes treated you?" must be allowed to be at least excusable, since the miserable inhabitants of that district, so travellers declare, sleep with their bodies buried three or four inches deep in sand, the head alone protruding, and that covered with a handkerchief.

It is time, however, to bring this gossip to a conclusion, though the end comes rather in obedience to a sense of fitness than from a lack of material. But I fear that I myself may be saluted with an adaptation of Virgil's line : Claudite jam rivos, pueri: sat prata biberunt. (Shut up the sluices, boys: the fields cry Hold! Enough !'')

The subject is not one that admits of an eloquent peroration. Speculation in reference to the grigin and rationale of salutations is open to the charge of being often fanciful, and occasionally futile; and I may be told that from this charge my paper has not relieved it. But if any of my readers, who take an interest in this subject, will also take the trouble to transfigure my fancies into facts, "what in" my speculation "is dark" may yet by their help be "illumined."—Cornhill Magazine.