or silver about their necks while a chaplain recited the follow-
ing prayer: “God give a blessing to this work, and grant that
these sick persons on whom the king lays his hands may re-
cover.” The practice of royal touching to gain popular sup-
port reached its peak in England under Charles II, who
reigned from 1660 to 1685. Charles touched nearly one hun-
dred thousand people. According to Thomas Macaulay, “in
1684, the throng was such that six or seven of the sick were
trampled to death.” A short time later, William III called the
practice “a silly superstition,” though his wife and coregent,
Mary II, continued it. Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702
to 1714, was the last British monarch to practice royal touch-
ing. James Boswell recorded in his biography of Samuel
Johnson that the infant Johnson had been taken to be
touched by Queen Anne because he had a disfigured face,
“his mother yielding to the superstitious notion, which, it is
wonderful to think prevailed so long in this country, as to
the virtue of the regal touch.” Queen Anne’s touch, however,
had no effect on the young Johnson, and Boswell teased him
that “his mother had not carried him far enough, she should
have taken him to Rome.” A practice comparable to the royal
healing touch is the washing of feet performed on Maundy
Thursday by notable people in imitation of Christ’s washing
his disciples’ feet. The practice took its name from the Latin
mandatum, the translation of the “new commandment” that
is given in John 13:34. Popes, bishops, and kings practiced
the ablution; the pope would wash the feet of his cardinals
or, in modern times, the feet of selected poor men. In En-
gland, kings did such washing until the reign of James II in
the late seventeenth century. Specially minted “Maundy
money” is still distributed by the monarch to certain old peo-
ple during a religious ceremony that takes place at a different
cathedral in England each year on Maundy Thursday, the
Thursday before Easter.
Power in the royal touch, look, or presence is attested
in many places. In the Laws of Manu the presence of the
king, like the sun, is said to burn eyes and hearts, and nobody
on earth can even gaze on him; even an infant king is a deity
in human form. The monarch’s responsibilities are great, and
he must conquer his own senses if he is to require obedience
from others. The king rules by the rod but must do no bodily
injury unjustly. If he fights his foes in battle, he must not
strike with poisonous weapons or smite one who surrenders.
His highest duty is to protect his subjects and gratify with
a kindly reception all who come to see him.
West African kings often wore beaded veils over their
faces, a practice that seems to be very ancient, from the evi-
dence of bronze masks with holes for veils. To look directly
at a king’s face or to receive his unveiled gaze were considered
equally dangerous. For the monarch to point at or touch a
commoner might be seen as either a mark of favor or of
danger.
In China, the physical obligations of a king were de-
tailed by the Confucian scholar Tung Chung-shu, who stat-
ed that the monarch must personally grasp a plow handle
and plow a furrow, pluck mulberries and feed silkworms, and
break new ground to increase the supply of grain. As the rep-
resentative of Heaven, the king formally touched the plow
or sickle to initiate the harvest. In Japan, to this day the em-
peror cuts the first rice of the harvest. Photographs in public
newspapers show him dressed in shirt, suspenders, and trou-
sers, harvesting rice. The rice he has cut is sent to the central
Shinto shrines at Ise.
KISSING AND HANDSHAKING. Kissing is a form of close
touching, a sign of reverence as well as of greeting or affec-
tion. It is performed on human beings and objects alike. The
Bible’s report that the prophet Elijah was assured that there
were in Israel seven thousand people who had not kissed the
god Baal indicates that the Canaanite and Phoenician cus-
tom of kissing the images of their gods was being practiced
by the Israelites. The prophet Hosea also spoke despairingly
of the Israelites kissing silver idols of calves. The Greeks and
Romans also kissed images of their gods, and early Christians
were persecuted for refusing to make such homage.
The ancient Hebrews kissed the floor of the Temple.
Jews still kiss the scroll of the Torah when they are about to
read it, and they kiss any holy book if it has been accidentally
dropped. When the Torah scrolls are taken around the syna-
gogue in procession, worshipers touch them and then place
their hands on their own breasts. When a Jew puts on a
prayer shawl, he kisses it, and upon entering or leaving a
room, Jews may kiss or touch a mezuzah, the miniature con-
tainer holding several verses of scripture that is affixed to a
doorpost. At the Western Wall in Jerusalem, worshipers han-
dle and kiss pieces of paper on which they write prayers and
that they then put into cracks in the wall.
In the celebration of the Mass, Roman Catholic priests
kiss the altar and the corporal cloth on which the sacred ele-
ments are laid. A priest also kisses the cross on a stole before
he puts it on. In both Eastern and Western churches, ritual
kissing is also performed with relics and with books of the
gospel, crosses, candles, palm branches, vestments, and uten-
sils of the liturgy. In British courts, oaths are sworn by taking
the Bible or another holy book in ungloved hands; formerly
the book was kissed.
Images and icons are popular objects of the kiss. In Saint
Peter’s Church in Rome, the toe of a statue of the apostle
has been partly worn away by the kisses of devotees. In Ire-
land, the kissing of the Blarney Stone is a modern tourist at-
traction that may look back to prehistoric times. Part of the
ritual of the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca is kissing the Black
Stone, which is set in the wall of the KaDbah. Because the
crowds are vast, some pilgrims use long sticks to touch the
stone, or from a distance they simulate a gesture of touching
and afterward pass their hands over their faces while praising
God and his prophet. In the opposite corner of the KaDbah
is another stone, which it was the Prophet’s custom to touch.
When the crowd prevents a pilgrim from touching it, he says
a prayer for blessing and forgiveness. Followers of the late
shah of Iran may still be observed kissing his portrait, and9258 TOUCHING