the same gesture of reverence is offered to pictures of his
rival, the Ayatollah Khomeini.
The Second Psalm (2:11) exhorts Israelite worshipers to
“kiss [the Lord’s] feet,” no doubt an act of homage. This car-
ried over to the kissing of kings’ and popes’ feet. In India,
to kiss the feet or take the dust of the feet upon one’s own
head is a sign of submission and reverence. A farewell kiss
to the dead is an old practice, one that was sometimes forbid-
den. It is still practiced in an attenuated form by touching
the coffin.
In the Islamic world, kissing the shoulder, the foot, or,
especially, the hand of a holy man is believed to communi-
cate spiritual benefit. The water in which saints have washed
their hands confers grace, and schoolboys may drink the
water they have used to wash the board on which they write
passages from the QurDa ̄n, in order that they may learn the
text more easily. The saliva of a holy man is said to have me-
dicinal value, and schoolboys are thought to learn their les-
sons better when their teachers spit into their mouths.
The kiss of peace became a distinctive Christian ritual:
both Paul and Peter exhorted their readers to “salute one an-
other with a holy kiss,” but by the time of Tertullian, in the
second century, it was ruled that men should kiss only men
and women should kiss only women, to prevent suggestions
of scandal. The kiss had a sacramental value. It was an out-
ward sign of spiritual union or blessing: bishops were given
a kiss at their consecration and kings at their coronation. The
practice of the kiss of peace has been revived in modern
times, either by shaking hands and uttering a phrase of peace
or, for the less reserved, by giving a holy kiss.
The shaking of hands may also transfer grace or mark
privilege. In Morocco, when equals meet they may join
hands in salutation, and then each person will kiss his own
hand. Among the West African Ashanti, during intervals of
dancing, priests walk around the circle of spectators, and
each places his right hand between the extended palms of the
person saluted. The right hand is usually considered the
proper or fortunate one, and the Ashanti may refuse to take
a gift or even the payment of a debt from the left hand of
the giver. In Latin, the word for left is sinister, and the Greeks
euphemistically called the left the “well-named” side in order
to avert bad luck. Shaking with the left hand, or with a finger
bent back, is practiced by special societies and copied by
Freemasons and Boy Scouts.
TOUCHING PROHIBITED. On the negative side, the prohibi-
tion against touching may be as important as the act itself.
Usually it serves to save a person from contamination. When
Moses brought the Israelites to Mount Sinai, he alone went
up into the presence of God. Although the people were sanc-
tified by ritual washing, they were exhorted not to touch the
mountain or its border, for “whosoever touches the mount
shall surely be put to death” (Ex. 19:12). The elaborate regu-
lations described in Leviticus include many prohibitions
against touching objects and people that were deemed sacred
or dangerous. Touching any unclean thing would bring guilt
and pollution and would require purgation by the presenta-
tion of a sin offering and an atonement effected by a priest.
Touching a dead body was considered particularly danger-
ous, and there are repeated warnings against such action. The
power of blood was always perilous, and touching a menstru-
ating woman or anything she sat on required washing and
the presentation of a sin offering. Because blood was consid-
ered the life or soul, prohibitions against its consumption
were imposed on Jews, and this rule was extended to Mus-
lims as well.
The Bible also strictly forbade touching to harm, or
even to suggest disrespect for, a sacred object or person.
When Uzzah put out his hand to steady the Ark, “God smote
him” (2 Sm. 6:7). The Bible records God’s command,
“touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm,”
a sentiment echoed in the vicar of Bray’s damnation of those
who “touch the Lord’s anointed”—a reference to the execu-
tion of Charles I. An example of reverential and perhaps nu-
minous prohibition against touching is found in the words
of the risen Christ to Mary: “Touch me not” (Jn. 20:17).
There are many other examples of religious figures who kept
themselves from being touched. When Nakayama Miki felt
herself to be filled with divinity and chosen for a special mis-
sion, she separated herself from the common people. She or-
dered that a separate fire and separate vessels be used to cook
her food, and she wore only red robes to show that she was
not an ordinary person. This emphasized the numinous
value of the amulets that she gave to her faithful, since she
claimed to be the mediatrix between God and men, saying,
“I must be set aside and live in a special and separate room.”SEE ALSO Blood; Kashrut; Power; Scapegoat; Tenrikyo ̄.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Among the countless books on Christian teaching and life that
may be consulted on themes related to touching, special ref-
erence may be made to A New Dictionary of Christian Theolo-
gy, edited by Alan Richardson and John Bowden (London,
1983), and to the oft-reprinted Oxford Dictionary of the
Christian Church, edited by F. L. Cross (Oxford, 1957). See
also Touching by Ashley Montagu (New York, 1971). Islamic
rituals of pilgrimage and prayers are described by Ahmad
Kamal in The Sacred Journey (New York, 1961). Victor Tur-
ner describes “religious processes” among the Ndembu of
Zambia in The Drums of Affliction (Oxford, 1968), and
Henry van Straelen’s The Religion of Divine Wisdom (Tokyo,
1954) gives an account of the history and rituals of Tenrikyo ̄.
The Rites of the Twice-Born (1920; reprint, New Delhi, 1971)
by Margaret S. Stevenson is probably still the most detailed
and readable account of Indian high-caste life and practices.
Mudra (New York, 1960) by E. Dale Saunders is an illustrat-
ed study of symbolic gestures in Buddhist sculpture. A valu-
able study of the rites and symbols associated with kissing is
The Kiss Sacred and Profane: An Interpretive History of Kiss
Symbolism and Related Religio-Erotic Themes (Berkeley,
Calif., 1969) by Nicholas J. Perella. Shamanic activities in
a variety of cultures are described at length by Mircea EliadeTOUCHING 9259