by touching the hem of his garment with their hands and then kissing it. And the Turk would shake hands, then kiss his own hand and raise it to his forehead as a mark of reverence.

The religious rites of the pagans among the Arabs and the Greeks required a person to kiss his hand and then raise it toward heaven. The Romans, however, kissed their right hand only, and then raised it in supplication to whatever gods they wished.

Rarely do we notice, today, when we kiss our hand and wave it in farewell to a dear friend, that we are only repeating the very motions the pagans used to perform for their gods in their worship... And the priest's raising of his hand at consecration and baptism, the teacher's raising of his hand — or rather his forefinger — to quell the pupils' din, the orator's raising of his hand to silence the crowd, and the policeman's to direct the traffic — all are of this same kind.

And from this pagan custom branched the custom of touching the sacred books with the hand while swearing an oath, and then kissing the hand, in the Middle Ages; and this is still the custom followed to this very day in the courts when witnesses are sworn.

As for the first men of the Church, they forbade kissing between the two sexes, and issued decrees banning this kind of kissing under pain of punishment. A man was permitted only to kiss the rougher sex, and women were permitted to kiss the daughters of their own sex. Saint Paul had, at the very outset, permitted the exchange of greetings by means of the "holy kiss."

In the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Rome there stands a bronze statue

of Saint Peter, which has been there since the fifth century after Christ. The kisses of worshipers have worn away the greater part of its right foot. How great a sacrifice! And

how many living human cells did the disappearance of the greater part of the saint's bronze foot require!!

Such is the history of the kiss — ponder it!

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