Indian Antiquary Vol 24

SR No.: 032516
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 390
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 305

OCTOBER, 1895.)
SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM.
295
chance to meet on the road, they salute each other by kissing 22 Before Easter Sunday the Russians kiss every one in the family in token of good will.23 On Easter day, the Czar kisses a soldier in each regiment. 24 The Russians and the Druses kiss the dead.25 The Russian bishop kisses the sacred pictures, and the people kiss the bishop's hands.26 In Russia, the priest's canonicals are kissed and signed with the cross before they are put on.27 Among the Danes, when a girl hears the cuckoo, she kisses her hand, and asks the cuckoo when she will be married.29 In German and Russian nursery tales, great powers are ascribed to a kiss. The maiden spell-bound in the form of a snake, dragon, toad, or frog, is freed from the spell by being thrice kissed.23 A kiss blots out of memory everything bad or unpleasant. Again, * kiss brings back remembrance, and the unbinding of a spell is said to hang on a kiss.30 The sense being that the kisser's influence passing in the kiss drives from the person kissed evil memories or the evil spell-spirit. Of a kiss counteracting a spell Sharpe3l gives the following example: - "In England, in 1603, a man thought his cow was bewitched; he would not go up to her till he had raised the tail and kissed under it." The Pope, on being installed, has his right foot and hand kissed by the Cardinals, his foot and right knee by the Bishops, and his foot by others.32 Roman Catholic Bishops and priests kiss the vessel that holds the sacred oil.33 In England, before the Reformation, when the service was ended, the congregation used to kiss the pax, a board with an image of Christ on the Cross, the kiss being the kiss of peace, the spirit of peace passing from the image into the ķisser, and so making the whole congregation of one spirit.34 In the words of St. Cyril (died A. D. 444) the sacramental or eucharistio kiss is the sign that our souls are mingled together.35 Similarly, in the Greek Church, the bride and bridegroom thrice kiss the cross.36 So also in the early Christian Church the taking of the Sacrament was preceded by the kiss of peace.37 Similarly, in England (A. D. 600-1000), drinkers kissed after pledging each other in wine. Compare the Peruvians who, before drinking, kissed the air two or three times in token of adoration.38 At the end of a Beni-Isra'il feast, the minister kisses a portion of bread and salt, and sends it round to the guests, each of whom kisses the bread and tastes the salt.39 When (A. D. 1547) Edward VI. of England was crowned, the people kissed first his right foot and then his cheek.40 At York and Newcastle (1825), in halls and in kitchens, kissing-bushes of mistletoe, greens, ribbons and oranges were hung, under which the men might kiss the girls, probably to draw into the kisser the hovering influences which haunt the evil dying year and might otherwise have harmed the kissed. According to an old Scottish custom the man who first enters a honse after twelve o'clock on New Year's morning has a right to demand a kiss. In the kiss passes the spirit of the guardian New Year which the man brings with him. Compare for the new moon :-"In England (1825), whoever is first to see the new moon may kiss one of the opposite sex and claim a pair of gloves."13 In Yorkshire and in Scotland, the clergy man used to kiss the bride after the wedding service, and in Ireland, the kiss of the bride and bridegroom was part of the ceremony." In England and in Russia, at the end and at the beginning of a dance, it was the practice to kiss.45 Another old English rule is that, if a woman kisses a man who is asleep
1 Guthrio's Old Scotch Customs, p. 125.
25 Op. cit. p. 133. English Woman in Russia, p. 221. 28 Op. cit. p. 240; Ency. Brit. Art. "Druses." 26 English Woman in Russia, p. 423. 27 Op. cit. p. 89. > Dyer's Folk-Lore, p. 60.
* Grimm's Teutonic Mythology. Vol. III. p. 939. Op. cit. Vol. III. p. 1101 ; Ralston's Russian Songs, p. 175; Conway's Demonology and Deuil-Lore, Vol. II. p. 377. 31 Sharpe's Witchcraft in Scotland, p. 211. ** Jones' Crowns, p. 404.
Op. cit. p. 412. 4 Op. cit. p. 229. Compare Parker's Architectural Glossary, Vol. I. p. 275. 55 Smith's Christian Antiquities, p. 903.
36 Cumming's In The Hebrides, p. 244. 37 Ency. Brit. Article "Eucharist."
58 Descriptive Sociology. Pp. 2, 25, 33. - Poona Gazetteer, Vol. I. p. 510.
40 Jones' Crowns, p. 223. 1 Compare The Denham Tracta, Vol. II. p. 67. 42 Chambers's Book of Days, p. 27. 15 Hone's Everyday Book, Yol. I. p. 1509.
4 Henderson's Foll-Lore, p. 40; Napier's Folk-Lore, p. 48. The kiss of peace was enjoined both in the York Missal and in the Sarum Manual. Gentleman'. Majarine Library, "Manners and Customs," p. 30; Gregor's an Echo of Olden Timo, p. 117.
45 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 140; St. James's Budget, January 3th, 1987, p. 16.