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Show Many Old World Customs Center Around the Kits Innumerable Old-world customs center around the kiss. A version of an early Lenten ceremony survives In England today: "On Maundy Thursday the kings and queens of England personally washed and kissed the feet of as many poor people as tbey themselves numbered In years and bestowed a gift, or maundy, upon eacb. Queen Elizabeth performed this royal duty at Greenwich when she was thirty-nine thirty-nine years old. Tbe feet of 89 poor persons were first washed by the yeoman ot the laundry with wano water and sweet herbs, afterward" by the sub-almoner and lastly by the queen herself, tbe person who washed making eacb time a cross upon the pauper's foot, above the toes, and kissing It This ceremony was performed per-formed by the queen kneeling, being attended by 30 ladies and gentlemen. Clothes, victuals and money were then distributed among the poor." |