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When they meet each other in the streets, you may know if the persons
meeting are of equal rank by the following token: if they are, instead
of speaking, they kiss each other on the lips. In the case where one
is a little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on the cheek;
where the difference of rank is great, the inferior prostrates himself
upon the ground. Of nations, they honour most their nearest
neighbours, whom they esteem next to themselves; those who live beyond
these they honour in the second degree; and so with the remainder, the
further they are removed, the less the esteem in which they hold them.
The reason is that they look upon themselves as very greatly superior
in all respects to the rest of mankind, regarding others as approaching
to excellence in proportion as they dwell nearer to them; whence it
comes to pass that those who are the farthest off must be the most
degraded of mankind. Under the dominion of the Medes, the several
nations of the empire exercised authority over each other in this
order. The Medes were lords over all, and governed the nations upon
their borders, who in their turn governed the States beyond, who
likewise bore rule over the nations which adjoined on them. And this
is the order which the Persians also follow in their distribution of
honour; for that people, like the Medes, has a progressive scale of
administration and government.
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