We hold certain views with regard to what is proper between
husband and wife. Those views are not held by the nations in
general, and missionaries need to be very particular about
offending. For instance, a husband goes away, and when he
returns from his tour and gets into the yard, the usual Oriental
crowd follows. His wife rushes out to greet him, and very
naturally they kiss. Like Judas, they are betraying the cause by
that act, because it is most unseemly to do such a thing as that
openly in certain countries. A missionary friend from Central
Africa tells of a tribe that he had labored to influence and had
partially succeeded. When he was leaving for further touring
and was sending his wife back home, he kissed her. Immediately
the two hundred men present burst into long and uncontrollable
laughter, not because it was new to them--for they kiss on
both cheeks--but because no man ever thought of doing so in
public. My friend lost more respect in a second than he had
won for himself by his laborious cultivation of the strange
tribe.--H. P. BEACH, “Student Volunteer Movement,” 1906.
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