During the Middle Ages the vassal paid homage to his feudal lord by a kiss on the hand or foot, hence the expression _devoir la bouche et les mains_. It is well-known what befell Charles the Simple when Rollo, the Norman chieftain, had to pay him feudal homage. The proud Viking would not bow down to the king, but laid hold of the latter’s feet and lifted them up to his mouth, whereat the king, amidst the laughter of the spectators, tumbled down. Thus the scene is depicted briefly and graphically in the _Roman de Rou_:-- Quant baisier dut le pie, baisier ne le deigna, La main tendi aual, le pie al rei leua, A sa bouche le traist e le rei enuersa; Asez s’en ristrent tuit, e li reis se dreça.[16] They also kissed their liege lords on the thigh, and this method of kissing can be traced down to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but the kiss on the hand was undoubtedly most frequently in use; and it was the general custom for the vassal at the same time to hand his lord a present, which is the reason why the word _baise-main_ (hand-kiss) gradually got this meaning. If the lord was absent when the vassal waited on him, the latter had to kiss the door, the lock or bolt, which was regarded as a valid substitution for kissing the hand. From this arose the expressions, _baiser l’huis_, (the door), _baiser le verrouil_, (the bolt), which were used partly as an expression of slavish subserviency, and partly in an ironical sense of lovers who have been rejected by their mistresses, and thus constrained to Kiss the door, and kiss its chains For ladies’ sake who are within. W. F. H. As expressive not only of respect, but also of repentance, children in former days were made to kiss the rod by which they had been chastised. Geiler von Keiserberg writes in the sixteenth century: “When children are thrashed they kiss the rods and say: Liebe ruot, trute ruot werestu, ich tet niemer guot.[17] “They kiss the rods and jump over them, yea they leap over them.” We have a memorial of this custom in the phrase, “kissing the rod.”