Usages, however strange they may sometimes become in the long run, have generally very simple beginnings.--_Translated from the above._ CHAPTER VIII THE ORIGIN OF KISSING With most civilised and many uncivilised nations kissing is the natural expression of love and its kindred emotions. How can it be explained that a kiss has succeeded in getting so deep and comprehensive a significance? How can a trivial movement of the lips interpret our innermost feelings in so eloquent a way that there is not a language which has at its command words approaching to it in argumentative power? Are we face to face with something primitive, or something conventional and derivative? Is it as natural to kiss when we are transported with love as it is to smile when we are mirthful, or weep when we are sad? In other words, is Steele right when he says, in strict conformity with a Cypriot folk-song previously quoted, that “nature was its author, and it began with the first courtship?” I shall try to answer this question in the following pages, but, nevertheless, I wish at once to state most expressly that we are now approaching ground where we know nothing, and where no one can with certainty know anything. We can only advance more or less likely hypotheses. In the first place, it is important to bear in mind that there are many races of people who are quite ignorant of kissing as it is generally understood. Thus it is unknown in a great part of Polynesia, in Madagascar, and among many tribes of negroes in Africa, more particularly among those which mutilate their lips. W. Reade, in one of his books of travel, tells us of the horror which seized a young African negress when he kissed her. Kissing is likewise unknown amongst the Esquimaux and the people of Tierra del Fuego. Certain Finnish tribes appear, from what B. Taylor tells us, not to practise it much. In his _Northern Travel_ he relates that “while both sexes bathe together in a state of complete nudity, a kiss is regarded as something indecent.” A Finnish married woman, on being told by him that it was the usual custom for husband and wife to kiss each other, angrily exclaimed, “If my husband were to attempt such a thing, faith, I would warm his ears in such a way that he would feel it for a whole week.” If the question arises as to what these people substitute for kissing, the fact is well-known that, amongst uncivilised races, there is an endless number of different ways of salutation; some smack each other on the arms or stomach, others blow on each other’s hands, others again rub their right ear and put out their tongue, etc., etc. Here, however, we must confine ourselves to the salutations which are suggestive of kissing.