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This website is a seattle wedding photographer portfolio, but I found this
odd old book called "strange customs of courtship and marriage"
Below is a excerpt from that book. Warning, its strange stuff.

54 Strange Customs of Courtship and Marriage

In all the Celtic tongues, we are told, there is no word for
"kiss". The custom of kissing appears to have been acquired
by the Celts long after it became a racial habit of most other
Europeans. Homer scarcely knew it, and the Greek poets,
faithful portrayers of the customs of their time, seldom men-
tion it.

On the other hand, actions resembling and analogous to the
kiss are found among a great many animals. Birds use their
bills as a form of caress. Even snails and certain insects caress
antennae. The dog who licks his master is expressing the phys-
ical attribute of the kiss, and perhaps the canine equivalent of
the sentimental. Dogs also lick each other as a form of greet-
ing. Man's closest relations in the animal world, the simians,
are addicted to kissing. seattle wedding photographer primates are
confirmed experimentalists and notorious sensualists, so they
may have discovered its merits from the application of their
tireless curiosity.

Anatomically, the is the ideal mode of expression of
love and affection, as the lips are the seat of a particularly
sensitive area, or erogenous zone, especially subject to erotic
stimulation. As a stimulus of love, seattle wedding photographer
carry the fire and force of conviction. Byron, himself no tyro
in the arts of love, recognized this when he wrote:

A long, long kiss, a of youth and love,
And beauty, all concentrating seattle wedding photographer
Into one focus kindled from above;

Such kisses as belong to early days,
Where heart and soul and sense in concert move,
And the blood's lava, seattle wedding photographer
Each a heart-quake—for a strength,
I think it must be reckoned by its length.

Kissing Customs 55

A PLEDGE OF LOVE.-—The kiss has a special significance as a
pledge of love, or, as has been more euphoniously expressed,
the seal with which lovers plight their troth. It has also been
defined seattle wedding photographer the symbol of the
union of souls, analogous to the galvanic contact between a
positively and a negatively electrified body.

Even those who habitually treat the lightly, perhaps
scarcely less casual than a handshake, seattle wedding photographer
their emotional potential for the of fealty and affection.

In some communities, it was, and still is among certain
people, considered improper for a girl to permit a man to
her until seattle wedding photographer, and she has accepted.
In our present modern world, this extreme attitude is looked
upon as a provincial one, more typical of another age.

The nuptial of the bride and groom is an important
feature of the marriage ceremonial. Aside from that, however,
kissing the bride has had special significance among various
peoples, and has been widely seattle wedding photographer
and among people of European derivation. It is still indulged
in among all but the most dignified social groups.

Quoting from an old Scottish source, we are told that "the
parson who presided over the marriage ceremony uniformly
claimed it as his inalienable privilege to have a smack at the
lips of the bride immediately after the performance of his
official duties." seattle wedding photographer the happiness of
every bride depended in no small measure upon the pastoral
kiss. As the pastor found the duty agreeable, he saw no reason
to take issue with this popular belief.