actions, except in the case of infants, are held to be
immodest. Never do girls kiss one another; never do parents kiss or
embrace their children who have become able to walk." This holds true, and
has always held true, of all classes; hand-clasping is also foreign to
them. On meeting after a long absence, Hearn remarks, they smile, perhaps
cry a little, they may even stroke each other, but that is all. Japanese
affection "is chiefly shown in acts of exquisite courtesy and
kindness."[203] Among nearly all of the black races of Africa lovers never
kiss nor do mothers usually kiss their babies.[204] Among the American
Indians the tactile kiss is, for the most part, unknown, though here and
there, as among the Fuegians, lovers rub their cheeks together.[205]
Kissing is unknown to the Malays. In North Queensland, however, Roth
states, kissing takes place between mothers (not fathers) and infants,
also between husbands and wives; but whether it is an introduced custom
Roth is unable to say; he adds that the Pitta-pitta language possesses a
word for kissing.[206]

It must be remarked, however, that in many parts of the world where the
tactile kiss, as we understand it, is usually said to be unknown, it still
exists as between a mother and her baby, and this seems to support the
view advocated by Lombroso that the lovers' kiss is developed from the
maternal kiss. Thus, the Angoni Zulus to the north of the Zambesi, Wiese
states, kiss their small children on both cheeks[207] and among the
Fuegians, according to Hyades, mothers kiss their small children.

Even in Europe the kiss in early mediaeval days was, it seems probable, not
widely known as an expression of sexual love; it would appear to have been
a refinement of love only practiced by the more cultivated classes. In the
old ballad of Glasgerion the lady suspected that her secret visitor was
only a churl, and not the knight he pretended to be, because when he came
in his master's place to spend the night with her he kissed her neither
coming nor going, but simply got her with child. It is only under a
comparatively high stage of civilization that the kiss has been emphasized
and developed in the art of love. Thus the Arabic author of the _Perfumed
Garden_, a work revealing the existence of a high degree of social
refinement, insists on the great importance of the kiss, especially if
applied to the inner part of the mouth, and he quotes a proverb that "A
moist kiss is better