Certain races of mankind now actually salute each other by smelling; they apply their mouth and nose to a person’s cheek, and draw a long breath. In their language they do not say “Give me a kiss,” but “Smell me.” The same sort of kiss is also met with among the Burmese; and with many Malay tribes the words “smell” and “salute” are synonymous. Other races do not confine themselves to smelling each other’s faces, but sniff their hands at every salutation. Alfred Grandidier, a French traveller, says of the nose-kiss in Madagascar: “It always excites the merriment of Europeans, and yet it has its origin in an extremely refined idea. The invisible air which is continually being breathed through the lips is to savages, not only, as with us, a sign of life, but it is also an emanation of the soul--its perfume, as they themselves say--and, when they mingle and suck in each other’s breath and odour, they think they are actually mingling their souls.”[30] Then the origin of the nose-kiss, it seems, undoubtedly ought to be sought--at any rate partly--in the sense of smell. The love of another human being involves, as a consequence, one’s loving everything belonging to this other being; and this love is shown _in casu_ by drinking in his or her breath, whereby, little by little, a peculiar nose-salutation is very ingeniously developed, which, naturally, is capable of gradually assuming various conventional forms. Now we will proceed to the kiss proper--that on the mouth. How can its origin be explained?[31] It does not seem very rational to assume that the motion of the muscles in breathing should of itself be the natural, purely physical reflex of a feeling of love in the same way as, for instance, certain half-spasmodic contractions of several muscles in the upper part of the face can be the immediate expression of wrath. I do not believe either that the mere contact of the lips with another person’s face was originally sufficient to express “I love you.” Naturally, the longing to touch the beloved ones body, to approach it as closely as possible, is a very essential manifestation of erotic emotion; but so far as the contact of the lips is concerned, there is reason for assuming that, originally, without its being the direct object, it had been, moreover, and perhaps in an equally high degree, a means of attaining a definite sensual gratification--a gratification that can be realised by the co-operation of the lips and mouth. As the nose-salutation partly originates in smell, so the mouth salutation may, to a certain extent[32] at least, have its origin in taste, or--which is even more probable--in both smell and taste? These latter, as you know, are very closely related to each other. The dog shows his joy at his master’s presence by licking the latter’s hand. Why is this? It would not, I suppose, be too rash to assume that he as good as “tastes” him; loving his master, he therefore loves the taste and smell peculiar to him.