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(d.) Kneeling Postures, where Precise Description is Lacking.

Unfortunately, Dr. Ploss, in his valuable and interesting work, has failed to define precisely the positions assumed, and, as I have been unable to refer to the authorities myself, I will take the liberty of stating in a general way, upon the authority of Dr. Ploss, that the kneeling posture is assumed occasionally, at least, by women in labor in Nicaragua,[85] in Finland,[86] in modern Greece,[87] in Kamtschatka, in eastern Asia; and, if we go back to the Middle Ages, among the Abyssinians,[88] a people who originally came from Asia, where, as we have already said, among the yellow races the kneeling posture is a common one; also, under certain circumstances, in Rome; among the Arabs and Germans in the Middle Ages. Finally, in ancient times, among the Pelasgians, if some Greek authors are correctly translated.

If I may be permitted to refer to the somewhat vague

statements in the Bible, we find in I Samuel, iv. 19, "Phineas' wife bowed herself and travailed, for her pains came upon her.'' This passage, I am informed, is commonly rendered by learned commentators as kneeling; Gesenius, in his Hebrew Lexicon, so understands the word. In Job, iii. 12, "Why did the knees prevent me,'' the Latin word being prevenio, to go before; as if Job had said, "Why did not the knees of my mother remain rigid and stiff, and I strangle in birth.'' The whole passage sustains this idea of kneeling.[89]