The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-08-29

Among the cannibal Tupis wal rior
shouts TO his enemy, May every mis-
fortune come upon thee, my meat. :"
The captive on approaching, exclaims,
ct, your food, have come"
In other places only a verbal surren-
der OF life takes place where the subject
processes to live only by permission of
the superior. This is aptly expressed
in the old Russian sou
my soul is Gods,
My land is mine,
Ny heads the Czar's,
My back Is thine"
When stranger enters the house OF
Sarcelot Gnland native) he goes ou
and says, White man, my house, my
wife, my children be1ong to thee," which,
it may be presumed might be as embar-
RAISING to an explorer as the Spanish
customs was to A. Ward esq. A sand
wich Islander asked as to the ownership
of q canoe replies &C. It's mine and
yours" and in Spain where politeness
requires that everything admired by a
stranger should be offered him the cor
rect way of beginning letter to friend
is From this, your house"
Biblical narratives are filled with the
word "Servant" as applied by subject
to superior and in those times the ser.
wants were the captives or prisoners
usually taken in war. This not only
expressed the relation OF persons but
also communities and subjects, tribes as
where David addressing Saul describes
himself and his father as Saul's servants.
These expressions of establishment
originally made to Supreme ruler
came to be applied to those of subordin-
ate authority, as when Joseph's brethren
we're brought before him in fear spoke
of themselves and of their father as his
servants or slaves. This form of address
also extended to equals where favor was
sought as witness, Judges XIX-19,
when the Levite, addressing the Ben.
jamite, soliciting O nights lodging, re-
fers to himself and his wife as "thy
servants"
In Hebrew history men are described
as servants of God just as they are
described as servants of the King, and
the parallel between the visible aud in
visible Ruler, in such expressions as,
"The King hath fulfilled the request of
his servant" "The Lord hath redeem.
ed his servant Jacob" has a history
parallel to all other elements of religious
ceremonial.
To the victorious Rameses II, his de-
feated foes prefaced their prayers for
mercy by the laudatory words "Prince
guarding thy army, valiant with the
sword, bulwark of his troops in day OF
battle, King mighty in strength, great
Sovran, Son powerful in truth, ap-
proved of Ra, mighty in victories,
Rameses Miamon."
The King of Siam is addressed by the
gloryfying works: "Mighty and August
Lord, ""Divine Mercy" "The Master
of Life" Sovereign Of the Earth" etc.
and the Sultan as "The Shadow of
God," "Glory of the Universe" etc.
the Emperor of China, "Son of Heaven, /"
"The Lord of Ten Thousand Years. "and
but few years since the Ozar of Russia
by Bulgarians as 80 blessed Czar, "
Blissful Czar," "Orthodox powerful
Czar."
The French courtiers of the 18th GEN.
tury used to say, "I am your servant
and the perpetual servant of your
house." And among ourselves in the
past were usel such indirect expressions
of servitude as "Yours to command, u
Ever at your worship's disposing,'
"in all serviceable humbleness, while
in our day, made orally only in irony,
we still adhere in writing to "Your
obedient servant" "Your humble SER
vant," etc., and these generally made
use of where distance is to be maintained
between the parties, and therefore like
too many of our other formalities have
an inverted meaning.