CHAPTER III

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ETIQUETTE

Out of the past we have come. Into it we are constantly returning. Meanwhile, it is of the utmost importance to our lives. It contains the roots of all we are. It contains the record or ruins of all the experiments that man has made during a quarter and a half million years in the art of living in this world. -CASSIUS J. KEYSER.

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THE FIRST HUMAN RELATIONSHIP

TIQUETTE," says Mrs. Lydig Hoyt, "really means civilization-life as we live it to-day as distinguished from what it was in the days of the

primitive."

We hope that by this time the reader has gained a clear and definite conception of what civilization really is, what it means, how it started, how it developed through the long ages of life. Etiquette is just a thread drawn through the many-coloured fabric of civilization. An important thread, of course, since it helps hold the fabric together; but by no means the only thread.

"Just try to imagine what our life would be like without etiquette !" pursues the author from whom we quote. "It would mean, for instance, more difficulty in boarding trolleys and subways, in driving automobiles. We'd all still be eating with our hands only and goodness knows what other things we would be doing!"

To this writer it seems that we would be doing precisely what man has been doing since the beginning of time. We would be inventing our etiquette, creating it in our daily life, living it. Etiquette, if regarded simply as ceremonial, is just another word for pride or caste. But if regarded as custom, habit, as the accepted mode of life, it becomes

as it actually is—a fundamental factor in the evolution and development of man.

And by "custom" we do not mean the custom of the moment the fashion or the whim of popular fancy. Since the very dawn of life man has had habit forced upon him by various external influences-the conditions under which he lived, the forces with which he had to contend, the instincts which he blindly obeyed. Thus did his mode of life induce special habits.

These habits passed into custom; custom passed sometimes into ceremonial, sometimes into religon, frequently into law. Custom, then, as we interpret it, means the habits of life as observed by mankind throughout its existencethe things we do, and say, and feel without stopping to think about them.

Taking etiquette in this broader, truer sense, let us trace it back over the ages and see how it served as the first human relationship. What were the first rules of etiquette, which means, in other words, the first laws of life, the first habits of man? When did they start, and how did they spread?

Primitive Etiquette Based on Fear.-In his primitive state man feared more than he reasoned. He feared the huge animals that roamed everywhere, and he found himself a safe home in some cave, rolling a stone against it at night to keep out intruders-the first door. He feared the elements and tried to read the stars-the beginning of astronomy. He feared unknown beings and wore the teeth and claws of animals he had killed to warn these beings of spirits that he was strong-the beginning of charms and of ornamentation.

But more than anything else, perhaps, man feared his own kind. Man was easy prey to man in those days, and food was sometimes scarce. It became one of the first habits of life, therefore, to carry always a crude club as a weapon. Fancy leads us astray, for a moment, as we contemplate the sword which followed the club, and the cane

which followed the sword. Don't you, in your own circle of acquaintances, know someone who never feels quite comfortable and at ease unless he is swinging a cane?

Fear, then, is one of the first instincts which shows its influence upon the habits of man. the habits of man. As soon as our savage ancestors met each other, they growled; and having growled, they raised their clubs; and having raised their clubs they fell upon each other. "To the victor belonged the spoils," and it usually happened that one of the fellows was hungry.

Man, however, reasoned as well as feared, although fear came first. Sometimes two savages would meet, and neither being hungry nor particularly frightened, they would eye each other, make a wide circuit, and disappear in opposite directions. Reason spoke. Why kill each other when both were well fed, when each was satisfied to pass on without injury to the other?

At another time, perhaps, they would come upon a great beast of the jungle-both at the same time. The instinct of self-preservation strong within them, they would fall together upon the beast and between them kill it with little trouble. Reason spoke again. Two could kill a beast more quickly and with less trouble than one-then why not hunt together? Why not be friends instead of enemies?

This occurred not to one man, but to many men in many widely separated places. Thereafter, when one savage fellow met another with whom he wished to be friendly, he held out his bare right hand-the weapon hand-as a symbol, or sign, of peace. The other fellow understood; symbolism is the simplest language of mankind. They joined forces, hunting, eating, and probably living together in the same cave.

The custom of holding out the right hand as a sign of peace, or welcome, or greeting, still exists. Our handclasp very possibly had its origin in this age-old custom. And you see, don't you, how it grew out of fear; how it

was a habit of life forced on early man by the conditions under which he lived.

The Early Need for Friendliness. In a world peopled with strange creatures of fancy and haunted by terrifying beasts, primitive man soon found a certain comfort in association with his own kind. The lone huntsman became a clansman, and in the clan were formulated the first laws of primitive society.

It is easy to see how the clan originated, or gathered, around the strongest and most powerful fellow in the vicinity. He became the head clansman, the chief. Mr. Strong Man, we shall call him. He would be proud of his power, disdainful of the weaker men about him. He would have possessions that were tabu to the others.

And Mr. Strong Man, conceited as man has been since the beginning of time, would demand some visible signs of fear and subjection from the men he permitted to join his clan. If they wished to hunt with him, join in the great feasts with him and find protection and comfort in his clan, they must be subservient to him. In other words, they must salute him as their superior.

Thus out of fear for Mr. Strong Man, mingled with a desire for friendliness, evolved forms of obeisance. This was probably the very earliest appearance of caste, or social differentiation.

Few of the ceremonial customs of courtesy which we observe to-day have originated in recent times. Most of them are vestiges of the past; they have grown out of the slow evolution of social life. And most of them are traceable to their genesis and early form, as we shall presently

see.

The First Forms of Obeisance.-Early man realized that if he did not sufficiently honour Mr. Strong Man certain dire happenings would follow. Therefore he took pains. to show his respect, to show that he realized Mr. Strong Man's importance.

One of the earliest forms of obeisance was kowtowing.

The word derives from the Chinese k'o-t'eu, a term meaning "to knock the head on the ground." Kowtowing, as a method of saluting a superior, was known not only in China, but was a widespread custom throughout Africa. The king of the Brass people, they tell us, never spoke to the king of the Ibos without acknowledging his inferiority by getting down on his knees and striking his head several times against the ground.

The Egyptians had a similar custom known as senta, which means, literally, "breathing the ground." To do homage to a person of importance they would fall to the ground and kiss the earth. The Coast Negroes, possibly borrowing the custom from their Egyptian neighbours, were accustomed to prostrate themselves before superiors and kiss the ground three times. On the lower Niger the people fell to their knees and struck their foreheads against the earth.

Many forms of obeisance, still in use to-day, evidently had their origin in acts to show absolute submission. These forms would be used in times when all chance of escape was gone, and having become a habit would gradually grow into custom. Thus among the Sandwich Islanders even to this day falling on the face is a mark of respect, originating, no doubt, as a mark of submission.

Among the North American Indians it was the custom for two people, when they met, to sit down about twenty yards from each other and simply look at each other without speaking. After a few minutes they would rise and walk on together. But if a person of importance approached, the other fellow would sit down and remain seated while the other passed on. To remain standing

would have been a breach of conduct and the offender would very likely have been punished.

Thus were forms of obeisance and homage originated to flatter the vanity of the strong men, the chiefs, the leaders of tribes and clans. And thus, also, was born