whoever kisses it with the sweet, persuasive, wheedling eloquence so
perceptible in the language of the Cork people, and which is generally
termed _Blarney_. This is the true meaning of the word, and not, as
some writers have supposed, a faculty of deviating from veracity with
an unblushing countenance whenever it may be convenient. The curious
traveller will seek in vain the _real_ stone, unless he allows himself
to be lowered from the northern angle of the lofty castle, when he
will discover cover it about twenty feet from the top, with the
inscription—_Cormac MacCarthy fortis me fieri fecit, A.D. 1446_.
As the kissing of this would be somewhat difficult, the candidate for
Blarney honors will be glad to know that at the summit, and within
easy access, is another _real_ stone, bearing the date of 1703. A song
published in the “Reliques of Father Prout” contains an allusion to this
marvellous relic:
“There is a stone there,
That whoever kisses,
Oh, he never misses
To grow eloquent.
’Tis he may clamber
To a lady’s chamber,
Or become a member
Of Parliament.
“A clever spouter
He’ll sure turn out, or
An out-and-outer,
To be let alone!
Don’t hope to hinder him,
Or to bewilder him;
Sure he’s a pilgrim
From the Blarney Stone.”
THE BLARNEY STONE.
I.
In Blarney Castle, on a crumbling tower,
There lies a stone (above your ready reach),
Which to the lips imparts, ’tis said, the power
Of facile falsehood and persuasive speech;
And hence, of one who talks in such a tone,
The peasants say, “He’s kissed the Blarney Stone.”
II.
Thus, when I see some flippant tourist swell
With secrets wrested from an emperor,
And hear him vaunt his bravery, and tell
How once he snubbed a marquis, I infer
The man came back—if but the truth were known—
By way of Cork, and kissed the Blarney Stone!
III.
So, when I hear a shallow dandy boast
(In the long ear that marks a brother dunce)
What precious favors ladies’ lips have lost,
To his advantage, I suspect at once
The fellow’s lying; that the dog alone
(Enough for him!) has kissed the Blarney Stone!
IV.
When some fine lady—ready to defame
An absent beauty, with as sweet a grace—
With seeming rapture greets a hated name,
And lauds her rival to her wondering face,
E’en Charity herself must freely own
Some women, too, have kissed the Blarney Stone!
V.
When sleek attorneys, whose seductive tongues,
Smooth with the unction of a golden fee,
“Breathe forth huge falsehoods from capacious lungs,”
(The words are Juvenal’s,) ’tis plain to see
A lawyer’s genius isn’t all his own:
The specious rogue has kissed the Blarney Stone!
VI.
When the false pastor from his fainting flock
Withholds the Bread of Life,—the Gospel news,—
To give them dainty words, lest he should shock
The fragile fabric of the paying pews,
Who but must feel, the man, to grace unknown,
Has kissed,—not Calvary,—but the Blarney Stone?
SAXE.
KISSING THE POPE’S TOE.
Buckle, in his “History of Civilization in England,” says:
“Some questions had been raised as to the propriety of kissing the
Pope’s toe, and even theologians had their doubts touching so singular
a ceremony. But this difficulty has been set at rest by Matthew of
Westminster, who explains the true origin of this custom. He says
that formerly it was usual to kiss the hand of his Holiness, but that
towards the end of the eighth century a certain lewd woman, in making an
offering to the Pope, not only kissed his hand, but also pressed it. The
Pope,—his name was Leo,—seeing the danger, cut off his hand, and thus
escaped the contamination to which he had been exposed. Since that time,
the precaution has been taken of kissing the Pope’s toe, instead of his
hand. And, lest any one should doubt the accuracy of this account, the
historian assures us that the hand, which had been cut off five or six
hundred years before, still existed in Rome; and was indeed a standing
miracle, since it was preserved in the Lateran in its original state,
free from corruption. And, as some readers might wish to be informed
respecting the Lateran itself, where the hand was kept, this also is
considered by the historian, in another part of his great work, where
he traces it back to the Emperor Nero. For it is said that this wicked
persecutor of the faith on one occasion vomited a frog covered with
blood, which he believed to be his own progeny, and, therefore, caused it
to be shut up in a vault, where it remained hidden for some time. Now,
in the Latin language _latente_ means hidden, and _rana_ means a frog;
so that by putting these two words together we have the origin of the
Lateran, which, in fact, was built where the frog was found.”
Punch, the London Charivari, who is no respecter of persons, and who
strikes right and left with unhesitating freedom, levelled the following
characteristic squib at Pius IX. during the famous Gladstone and Manning
controversy:
“DE PROFUNDIS.”—A NEW VERSION.
Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,
Close prisoner kept within the Vatican;
What if ’tis a fair palace, if I don’t
Go free abroad—that is because I won’t!
Dry bread and water, such the prison food;—
Unless I choose to order all that’s good.
And then so poor—with Peter’s pence in pocket,
And treasury with friends and foes to stock it.
Besides, these felon’s garments forced to wear,
Of softest silk and costliest mohair;
And forced to brook, by rulers harsh and proud,
Th’ obsequious service of a servile crowd;
Crowding my halls, my cruel gaolers see
Waiting my orders upon bended knee!
And last, not least—for the severest blow—
My visitors are free to come and go,
To crave my blessing, and to kiss my toe!
THE BRONZE STATUE OF ST. PETER.
In “Pen-Pictures of Europe,” Elizabeth Peake says, speaking of St.
Peter’s Church at Rome:
“In contrast with the beauty and grandeur of the interior is the
insignificant-looking bronze statue of what they call St. Peter, seated
in a chair of white marble. Some one remarked that it had been in ancient
times a statue of Jupiter. ‘Jupiter,’ I exclaimed, ‘the Jupiter of the
old Romans? Never!’ While I stood wondering at the unaccountable vagaries
of mankind in general, and of artists in particular, and of the meaning
of the word taste, several persons passed along and kissed the foot of
the statue, the toes of which are actually worn away with kissing, and
the big toe, what is left of it, looks bright as gold....
“Crowds of people were walking round in the nave, looking at the pictures
and statues; crowds stood at the gate of the chapel, looking in through
the gate and railing, listening to the music; and all grades filed along
by the statue of St. Peter, kneeling, then rising and kissing his toe.
The peasants wiped off the toe with their hands or sleeves, and then
kissed it; others carefully wiped it with their handkerchiefs both before
and after kissing it.”
A KISS FOR A VOTE.
In a little work published in London in 1758, entitled “A New
Geographical and Historical Grammar,” we find the following paragraph
concerning bribery and kissing:
“The ladies may think it a hardship that they are neither allowed a
place in the Senate nor a voice in the choice of what is called the
representative of the nation. However, their influence appears to be such
in many instances that they have no reason to complain. In boroughs the
candidates are so wise as to apply chiefly to the wife.[11] A certain
candidate for a Norfolk borough kissed the voters’ wives with guineas
in his mouth, for which he was expelled the House; and for this reason
others, I suppose, will be more private in their addresses to the ladies.”
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, gave Steel, the butcher, a kiss for his
vote nearly a century since; and another equally beautiful woman, Jane,
Duchess of Gordon, recruited her regiment in a similar manner. Duncan
Mackenzie, a veteran of Waterloo, who died at Elgin, Scotland, December,
1866, delighted in relating how he kissed the duchess in taking the
shilling from between her teeth to become one of her regiment,—the Gordon
Highlanders, better known as the Ninety-second. The old Scottish veteran
of eighty-seven has not left one behind him to tell the same tale about
kissing the blue-eyed duchess in the market-place of Duthill.
The late Daniel O’Connell hit upon a novel mode of securing votes for the
candidates he had named at a certain election, which test, considering
the constitutional temperament of his countrymen, is said to have proved
effectual. He said, in reference to the unfortunate elector who should
vote against them, “Let no man speak to him. _Let no woman salute him!_”
FRENCH CHEAPENING AND DEGENERACY.
Montaigne, speaking of the gradual debasement of the custom in France in
his time (1533-1592), says:
“Do but observe how much the form of salutation, particular to our
nation, has by its facility made kisses, which Socrates says are so
powerful and dangerous for stealing hearts, of no esteem. It is a
nauseous and injurious custom for ladies, that they must be obliged to
lend their lips to every fellow that has three footmen at his heels, how
nasty or deformed soever; and we do not get much by the bargain; for,
as the world is divided, for three pretty women we must kiss fifty ugly
ones, and to a tender stomach like those of my age, an ill kiss overpays
a good one.”
KISSING DANCES.
A correspondent of “The Spectator” (No. 67, an. 1711) having bitterly
complained of the lascivious character of the dancing of the period,
Budgell, in the course of his reply, remarks:
“I must confess I am afraid that my correspondent had too much reason to
be a little out of humor at the treatment of his daughter; but I conclude
that he would have been much more so had he seen one of those kissing
dances, in which Will Honeycomb assures me they are obliged to dwell
almost a minute on the fair one’s lips, or they will be too quick for the
music and dance quite out of time.”
Long before, Sir John Suckling had said, in his “Ballad on a Wedding:”
“O’ th’ sudden up they rise and dance;
Then sit again, and sigh, and glance;
Then dance again, and kiss.”
While on this subject it may not be amiss to advert to a passage in the
_Symposium_, or Banquet, of Xenophon, which Burton, in his “Anatomy of
Melancholy,” quotes with his usual gusto:
“When Xenophon had discoursed of love, and used all the engines that
might be devised, to move Socrates, among the rest, to stir him the
more, he shuts up all with a pleasant interlude or dance of Dionysius
and Ariadne: First Ariadne, dressed like a bride, came in and took her
place; by-and-by Dionysius entered, dancing to the music. The spectators
did all admire the young man’s carriage; and Ariadne herself was so
much affected with the sight that she could scarce sit. After awhile
Dionysius beholding Ariadne, and incensed with love, bowing to her
knees, embraced her first, and kissed her with a grace; she embraced
him again, and kissed him with like affection, as the dance required;
but they that stood by and saw this did much applaud and commend them
both for it. And when Dionysius rose up, he raised her up with him,
and many pretty gestures, embraces, kisses, and love-compliments passed
between them: which when they saw fair Bacchus and beautiful Ariadne so
sweetly and so unfeignedly kissing each other, so really embracing, they
swore they loved indeed, and were so inflamed with the object that they
began to rouse up themselves, as if they would have flown. At the last,
when they saw them still so willingly embracing, and now ready to go to
the bride-chamber, they were so ravished with it that they that were
unmarried swore they would forthwith marry, and those that were married
called instantly for their horses, and galloped home to their wives.’”
KISSING HANDS IN AUSTRIA.
Kissing the hand is a national custom in Austria. A gentleman on meeting
a lady of his acquaintance, especially if she be young and handsome,
kisses her hand. On parting from her he again kisses her hand. In Vienna,
a young man who is paying his addresses to a young lady, on taking his
place at the supper-table around which the family are seated, kisses the
mother’s hand as well as the hand of his affianced. It is very common to
see a gentleman kiss a lady’s hand on the street on meeting or parting.
If you give a beggar-woman a few coppers, she either kisses your hand,
or says, “I kiss your hand.” The stranger must expect to have his hand
kissed not only by beggars, but by chambermaids, lackeys, and even by
old men. Gentlemen kiss the hands of married women as well as of those
who are single, as it is regarded as an ordinary salutation or token
of respect. American ladies are startled with the first experience of
the application of this custom; but they soon submit to it with a good
grace. Children, when presented to a stranger, take his hand and kiss
it, showing that it is a custom to which they are educated from their
cradles.
TEMPLAR INTERDICTION.
In “Ivanhoe” the Grand Master of the Templars is made to say:
——“Thou knowest that we were forbidden to receive those devout women
who at the beginning were associated as sisters of our Order, because,
saith the forty-sixth chapter, the Ancient Enemy hath by female society
withdrawn many from the right path to paradise. Nay, in the last capital,
being, as it were, the cope-stone which our blessed founder placed on the
pure and undefiled doctrine which he had enjoined, we are prohibited from
offering even to our sisters and our mothers the kiss of affection—_ut
omnium mulierum fugiantur oscula_. I shame to speak—I shame to think—of
the corruptions which have rushed in upon us even like a flood.”
POMPEIAN TOKENS.
Marc Monnier, in his “Wonders of Pompeii,” says that the latest
excavations have revealed the existence of hanging covered balconies,
long exterior corridors, pierced with casements frequently depicted in
the paintings. There the fair Pompeian could have taken her station in
order to participate in the life outside. The good housewife of those
times, like her counterpart in our day, could there have held out her
basket to the street-merchant who went wandering about with his portable
shop; and more than one handsome girl may at the same post have carried
her fingers to her lips, there to cull (the ancient custom) the kiss that
she flung to the young Pompeian concealed down yonder in the corner of
the wall. Thus re-peopled, the old-time street, narrow as it is, was
gayer than our own thoroughfares; and the brightly-painted houses, the
variegated walls, the monuments, and the fountains gave vivid animation
to a picture too dazzling for our gaze.
ARABIAN SALUTATION.
Eastern salutations take up considerable time. When an Arab meets a
friend, he begins, while yet some distance from him, to make gestures
expressive of his very great satisfaction in seeing him. When he comes
up to him, he grasps him by the right hand, and then brings back his own
hand to his lips, in token of respect. He next proceeds to place his
hand gently under the long beard of the other, and honors it with an
affectionate kiss. He inquires particularly, again and again, concerning
his health and the health of his family, and repeats, over and over, the
best wishes for his prosperity, giving thanks to God that he is permitted
once more to behold his face. All this round of gestures and words is,
of course, gone over by the friend too, with like formality. But they
are not generally satisfied with a single exchange of this sort: they
sometimes repeat as often as ten times the whole tiresome ceremony, with
little or no variation.
Some such tedious modes of salutation were common, also, of old; so that
a man might suffer very material delay in travelling if he chanced to
meet several acquaintances and should undertake to salute each according
to the custom of the country. On this account, when Elisha sent his
servant Gehazi in great haste to the Shunammite’s house, he said to him,
“If thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him
not again.” (2 Kings iv. 29.) So, when our Lord sent forth his seventy
disciples, among other instructions, he bade them “salute no man by the
way;” meaning that their work was too important to allow such a waste of
time in the exchange of mere unmeaning ceremonies. (Luke x. 4.)
THE OLD ROMAN CODE.
This code defined with great accuracy the nature, limits, and conditions
of the _right of kissing_, although we do not find that property of this
nature holds a place among the incorporeal hereditaments of our laws. The
Romans were very strict, and only near blood-relations might kiss the
women of the family at all. The kiss had all the virtue of a bond granted
as a seal to the ceremony of betrothing, in consequence of the violence
done to the modesty of the lady by a kiss!
WEDDING-CEREMONY IN TURKEY.
In Turkey, negotiations for marriage are conducted by friends or
relations, the parties in interest not being allowed to see each other.
The bargain being concluded to their mutual satisfaction, preparations
are made for the customary festivities.
About nine or ten o’clock in the evening the nuptial knot is tied,—the
Imaam, or priest, placing himself in a short passage which leads between
two rooms, respectively occupied by the bride and bridegroom, who neither
see each other nor the priest during the ceremony. That functionary asks
the bride if she will take the man to be her husband, whether he be
blind, lame, etc. She replies yes, three times.
They are now man and wife, though as yet they have not gazed on each
other’s features.
After the conclusion of the ceremony the festivities are resumed.
Meanwhile the bride is escorted by her female friends to the bridal
chamber, where she is seated on an ottoman and left alone. Shortly after,
the bridegroom makes his appearance. Discovering that his wife is still
enveloped in her veil, he requests her to throw it aside, so that he can
feast his eyes upon her beauty. This she coquettishly declines doing
until he has become very earnest in his persuasions, when she discloses
to him for the first time a view of her face.
After much persuasion on his part, and affected reluctance on hers, he at
length succeeds in kissing her, and the curtain drops.
KISSING IN CHINA.
An American naval officer, who had spent considerable time in China,
narrates an amusing experience of the ignorance of the Chinese maidens
of the custom of kissing. Wishing to complete a conquest he had made
of a young _mei jin_ (beautiful lady), he invited her—using the
English words—to give him a kiss. Finding her comprehension of his
request somewhat obscure, he suited the action to the word and took a
delicious kiss. The girl ran away into another room, thoroughly alarmed,
exclaiming, “Terrible man-eater, I shall be devoured.” But in a moment,
finding herself uninjured by the salute, she returned to his side,
saying, “I would learn more of your strange rite. Ke-e-es me.” He knew it
wasn’t “right,” but he kept on instructing her in the rite of “ke-e-es
me,” until she knew how to do it like a native Yankee girl; and after all
that, she suggested a second course, by remarking, “Ke-e-es me some more,
_seen jine_ Mee-lee-kee!” (_Anglicé_—American), and the lesson went on
until her mamma’s voice rudely awakened them from their delicious dream.
Notwithstanding the alleged infrequency of the custom of kissing in the
Chinese dominions, we learn, from the Chinese poems which have been so
happily translated by Mr. G. C. Stent, that the people of far Cathay are
quite as susceptible to the spell of physical beauty as the people of
other lands, and that they know as well how to sing and flatter it. Take
the following extract, for example:
“Bashfully, swimmingly, pleadingly, scoffingly,
Temptingly, languidly, lovingly, laughingly,
Witchingly, roguishly, playfully, naughtily,
Wilfully, waywardly, meltingly, haughtily,
Gleamed the eyes of Yang-kuei-fei.
When she smiled, her lips unclosing,
Two rows of pearly teeth disclosing;
Cheeks of alabaster, showing
The warm red blood beneath them glowing,—
Peaches longing to be bitten,
First dew-moistened, then sun-smitten.
Four lines Li-tai-pai has written
In more expressive words convey
What others might in vain essay:
‘Oh for those blushing, dimpled cheeks,
That match the rose in hue!
If one is kissed, the other speaks,
By blushes, _Kiss me too!_’”
NEW YEAR’S DAY IN NEW AMSTERDAM.
In Diedrich Knickerbocker’s veracious history of New York, we are
told that New Year’s day was the favorite festival of the renowned
governor Peter Stuyvesant, and was ushered in by the ringing of bells
and firing of guns. On that genial day, says Mr. Irving, the fountains
of hospitality were broken up, and the whole community was deluged
with cherry brandy, true Hollands, and mulled cider; every house was a
temple of the jolly god, and many a provident vagabond got drunk out of
pure economy,—taking in liquor enough gratis to serve him half a year
afterwards.
The great assemblage, however, was at the governor’s house, whither
repaired all the burghers of New Amsterdam, with their wives and
daughters, pranked out in their best attire. On this occasion the good
Peter was devoutly observant of the pious Dutch rite of kissing the
women-kind for a Happy New Year; and it is traditional that Antony the
Trumpeter, who acted as gentleman usher, took toll of all who were young
and handsome, as they passed through the antechamber. This venerable
custom, thus happily introduced, was followed with such zeal by high and
low that on New Year’s day, during the reign of Peter Stuyvesant, New
Amsterdam was the most thoroughly be-kissed community in all Christendom.
The Trumpeter referred to by the humorous historian was Van Corlear, of
whom, on the eve of a famous Dutch military campaign, it is said:
“It was a moving sight to see the buxom lasses, how they hung about
the doughty Antony Van Corlear,—for he was a jolly, rosy-faced, lusty
bachelor, fond of his joke, and withal a desperate rogue among the women.
Fain would they have kept him to comfort them while the army was away;
for, besides what I have said of him, it is no more than justice to add
that he was a kind-hearted soul, noted for his benevolent attentions
in comforting disconsolate wives during the absence of their husbands;
and this made him to be very much regarded by the honest burghers of
the city. But nothing could keep the valiant Antony from following the
heels of the old governor, whom he loved as he did his very soul; so,
embracing all the young vrouws, and giving every one of them that had
good teeth and rosy lips a dozen hearty smacks, he departed, loaded with
their kind wishes.”
Before leaving this lusty bachelor, who was such a “prodigious favorite”
with the women, it may be noted that he is said to have been the first to
collect that famous toll levied on the fair sex at Kissing Bridge, on the
highway to Hellgate. The bridge referred to by Diedrich still exists, but
the toll is seldom collected nowadays, except on sleighing-parties, by
the descendants of the patriarchs, who still preserve the traditions of
the city.
KISS-ME-QUICK.
Bartlett, in his “Dictionary of Americanisms,” tells us that the
“Kiss-Me-Quick” is a home-made, quilted bonnet, which does not extend
beyond the face. It is chiefly used to cover the head by ladies when
going to parties or to the theatre. Sam Slick says, in “Human Nature:”
“She holds out with each hand a portion of her silk dress, as if she was
walking a minuet, and it discloses a snow-white petticoat. Her step is
short and mincing, and she wears a new bonnet called a _kiss-me-quick_.”
HUSKING-FROLICS.
That early American poet, Joel Barlow, in his famous poem, “The Hasty
Pudding,” thus pleasantly refers to the New England husking bees: