Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 176, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1912 — Thumbs In Social Customs. [ARTICLE]

Thumbs In Social Customs.

Few persons realize how important a role the thumb has played In the social customs of the people. Erskine records that among certain glasses of people in Scotland the final settlement of a bargain was always signalized by the licking and joining of thumbs. Selden says that kissing the thumb was a characteristic of servility. The Clergy, the rich and the great, were in receipt of this honor from tradesmen. From remotes times the practice of licking the thumb has been regarded as a solemn pledge or promise, existing, according to Tacitus and others, among the Goths, the Iberians and the Moors, and it may also be traced through successive periods down to the present time.