No doubt ceremoniousness of all sorts easily glides into abuse, and readily lends itself to ridicule.
The 'kowtowing' exacted by the Chinese sovereigns
from those approaching them very nearly led to serious trouble when European ambassadors first came to be established in peking. We of the west object to antics which we apt to consider more befitting apes than men, and protest against being asked to' make fools of ourselve's, as we put it. Such things look markedly different to different minds. So much depends on the point of view. Even in things pertaining to religion we see widely opposite view prevailing. Some are all for extreme simplicity in matters of worship, advocating that this is the truly reverent attitude towards a God so infinitely above us in the scale of being, and stigmatizing elaborate acts of ritualism as 'Mumbo jumbo mummeries'. Others maintain that a punctilious ceremoniousness is of the very essence of true devoutness, and that its absence betokens a woefully lack of a esthetic appreciation and inherent refinement.
78- An elephant had frequently to pass over a small
wooden bridge, leading from his master's house in