The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-12-13
VARIOUS MODES OF GREETING
Characteristic Phrases Used in Salu
tations.
(London Globe.


1t has often been pointed out some
what fancifully perhaps, that the
modes of greeting current in differnt
countries are sometimes nationally or
racially characteristic The Spaniard
or the Italian says, How do you
stand?" which may be referred either
to stateliness or laziness. The French
can, careful. of department, asks,
How do you carry yourself?" The
Dutchman, fond of the table, salutes
you with May you eat a hearty din
| ner;" while the Englishman, the man
of action, says, How do you do?"
More markedly characteristic are some
| of the equivalent phrases used among
| nom European peoples. The peasant of
southern China, for instance, asks,
tenderly, Have you eaten you rice?"
and at Cairo they inquire, sympatheti-
cally, How do you sweat?"
Our English, How do you do?" is
direct translation of the medieval
French form of greeting, Comment lie
faitesvos?" and seems to have come
into common use toward the end of
the seventeenth century. CuriouslY
enough, it's general acceptance appears
to have conceded with the dying out
of the old mode of greeting ladies,
which was emphatically known as
saluting, and which seems to modern
ideas so extraordinarily familiar and
intimate-that is, by kissing. English
men are sometimes inclined to regard
with rather a superior air the more
ELUSIVE methods Of salutation, especi-
ally between men, common on the con-
tinent; but for centuries England was
the land of kisses When man greeted
woman, whether it was for the first
or the hundredth time, he kissed her.
Chaucer alludes to the custom as eX-
listing in his day. In the "Sompnour's
Tale" the Frere, when tee mistress Of
the house enters the room where he
and her husband are sitting together
Ariseth up full curtisly,
And hire embraceth in his arms narwe,
And kisseth hire swete, and chirketh as a
Sparwe
With his lippes.
Two hundred years later, Erasmus,
in one of his graphic letters from
England wrote very appreeiatively OF
the custom. IF you go any place.
he tells his correspondent with ref
erence to English ladies, you are le-
ceived with a kiss by all; if you de-
part on journey, you are dismissed
with a kiss; you return, kisses are ex-
changed. They come to visit you, a
kiss the first thing; they leave you,
you kiss them all around. Do they
meet you anywhere, kisses in album
Dance 1t was no wonder that Eras-
mus told his friend that if he had once
had experience of the custon-"on my
honor, you would wish not to reside
here for ten years only, but for life =
This mode of salutation continued in
fashion, more or less, through the sew
enteenth century and into the eigh-
tenth but occasionally there We're
protests. Bunyan- condemned it Sc
vereiy in his Grace Astounding" and
other serious writers followed his lead.
Like other fashions, it died out gradu-
ally, first among the quality us so
ciety people were then called in town,
and later among country folk. In the
Spectator for Dec, 5. I'LL, there
is an amusing letter from a country
gentleman greatly perturbed by the
behavior of a young exquisite from
London The worthy young squire
lived on his own estate; was hospitable
and. according TO his own account. was