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246
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
SEPTEMBER, 1896.
Under E, the Sacramental Salute, come: -
a) Hand-shaking. (6) Kissing and inhaling. () Spitting. (d) Embracing. (e) Health-drinking. () Body-rabbing. (g) Head-knocking. (h) Bowing.
(1) Robe-sharing. A (a), the guardian as a salute: When Dakhan Marathâs meet each says, "Râma, Râma," and when Gujaratis meet their salute is "Jai Gopal, Victory to Gôpál." In carrying the dead, in the west of India, most Hindus, admittedly with the object of keeping evil spirits from drawing near the corpse, keep ap the cry “Rám bóló bhái, Rámá, Say Rám, brothers, say Râm." A widespread use of God's name as a salute is in salating the sneezer. In Tahiti, those near a sneezer say, “God be kind;" in Samoa, the salate is "May you live." The Tahitans say, “God be kind," because the cause of a sneeze is the sudden departure of an outside spirit from the sneezer.54 The sneezing Kafir says, “May god look on me with favour." The Amazulas of South-East Africa thought a sneeze was caused by a spirit being near, and said, "Spirits, grant long life. The Damaras of South-West Africa are fond of sneezing and of saying "Lord."66 Parsis think & sneeze is a sign of the victory of the vital fire over a bad spirit, and thank the guardian Hormazd for his aid,56 When an Arab sneezes those round him say, "God bless you."57 The Egyptians blessed God when a person sneezed, because, say the Jews, death came in a snooze till the patriarch Jacob bogged that death might be less sudden. The Greeks blessed the sneezer, of which Aristotle (B. C. 330) gives the false and philosophic explana. tion, that a sneeze shews the brain is in health. Pliny (A. D. 70) explained the Roman sneezesalute by the tale that when his nostrils were touched with fire Prometheus sneezed.59 Among modern European nations the Italians salute the sneezer, the Germans wish him health, the English say, "God bless you." The holiness of the sneeze is an example of the law, the un-willed is the spirit-caused. The sneeze marks the struggle between the trespassing spirit and the occupying spirit. Tho Tahitans and the Pârsis have kept admirably near the true explanation. The common seventeenth century English greeting was: “How dost thou do," with a thump on the shoulder. The parting was "God keep you," "God be with you." Coleridge's Wedding Guest gives the Ancient Marinera full greeting :-"God save thee, ancient mariner, from the fiends that plague thee so."00
A (6), the naming of Hail or Health : In India, after a mind or death-feast, the host says to the Bråh maņ guests, "Have you eaten well P" The Brahmans, into whom, along with the food, the dead and other spirits have passed, say, "May there be Health." In all ceremonies to the dead the word Hail or Health is the best blessing.01 In North Africa, in salating a stranger, a chief kisses the stranger's hand and says, "My men are come to wish you health."63 The early Hebrew salute was "In the name of God." Then shalom, which strictly means welfare, not peace, came into fashion. The Muslim greeting is "Peace be on you," and the reply is “On you be peace and the mercy of God." The pathetic salute of the doomed gladiators, “Morituri salutant," was to save the god-emperor from the Evil Eye of the crowd
A Revillo Les Religions des Peuples Non Civiliada, Vol. II. p. 112. .
Notes and Queries, Fifth Series, Vol. VIII. p. 284.. Op.cit. Vol. VIII. p. 284. 57 Op. cit. Vol. VIII. p. 223.
Op.cit. Vol. VIII. p. 223. " Aubrey in Hone's Table Book, Vol. L p. 890; Pepy's Diary in Hone's Tablo Book, Vol. II- 880. . Moxon's Coleridge (1870), p. 96.
14 Burnell's Mans, p. 74 62 Denham and Clapperton's North Africa, Vol. I. p. 29. & Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. III. p. 1093. Lane's Modern Egyptians, p. 198.
