| No one really knows how it all started. | | | | written by Hugh Morris in 1936. The book |
| Oneless-than-romantic theory is that it was | | | | analyses every aspect of the kiss and an |
| originally a preamble to the act of | | | | entire chapter is devoted to How to Kiss |
| regurgitation. In the days before Heinz baby | | | | Girls with Different Sizes of Mouth - a |
| food, spoons and Moulinex blenders, cave | | | | useful manual for any man confronted with the |
| mothers fed their young offspring by chewing | | | | voluminous, bee-stung lips of today's |
| morsels of food, liberally drenched with | | | | collagen-implanted females. |
| saliva, and poking the masticated mess into | | | | |
| their mouths with their tongues. | | | | "A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature |
| | | | to stop speech when words become |
| Anthropologists pooh-pooh this theory saying | | | | superfluous."- Ingrid Bergman |
| that, if this was the case, mouth kissing | | | | |
| would have gone on in all societies and eras, | | | | If kissing was slow to catch on in |
| which it did not. In parts of Japan, Siberia | | | | evolutionary terms, scientists concede that |
| and among the Eskimo culture, rubbing noses | | | | it has become part of "natural" human |
| was, until modern times, the only kind of | | | | behaviour today. In trials they have found |
| kissing that went on. Certain ancient Finnish | | | | that, when seeing a woman he is attracted to, |
| tribes believed kissing to be distasteful and | | | | a man's saliva fills with the male hormone |
| indecent, even though they happily bathed | | | | testosterone. Kissing passes some of those |
| naked together. In Asia, for centuries, the | | | | hormones on to the female, making her more in |
| bow was the traditional greeting and kissing | | | | the mood for love. |
| would only go on in private. In Roman times, | | | | |
| kissing was an act of homage used to denote | | | | According to another survey, people who kiss |
| status, ranked by the body parts someone was | | | | their partners goodbye when they leave for |
| permitted to kiss. Important nobles kissed | | | | work in the morning tend to earn much higher |
| cheeks or hands while lesser mortals had to | | | | salaries than those who don't. |
| make do with feet kissing. | | | | |
| | | | And the scientist who said not all of us kiss |
| However, somehow, lip contact caught on and | | | | the right way? He was Professor Onur |
| soon became more adventurous. According to | | | | Gunturkun from Germany's Ruhr University who |
| Chinese Tao tradition, a perfect balance of | | | | discovered that two thirds of people tilt |
| yin and yang is only achieved with an | | | | their heads to the right when kissing, which |
| exchange of "liquid jade" - more | | | | means that the other one third who tilt their |
| prosaically-known as saliva. Or what we would | | | | heads to the left are not doing it the |
| call a French kiss. | | | | "right" way… |
| | | | |
| "I have found men who didn't know how to | | | | Sta-kiss-stics |
| kiss. I've always found time to teach them." | | | | |
| - Mae West | | | | At the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in |
| | | | 1990, Alfred Wolfram from New Brighton, |
| Kissing, in the days before toothpaste and | | | | kissed 8001 people in 8 hours - over sixteen |
| dental floss, must have been a grim affair. | | | | people a minute. |
| To make it more palatable, young maids would | | | | |
| carry a clove-studded apple when courting, | | | | Between 1st and 6th May 1978 Americans Bobbi |
| exchanging a bite for a kiss. The apple | | | | Sherlock and Ray Blazina held a kiss-in that |
| helped to clean the suitor's teeth and the | | | | lasted for 130 hours and 2 minutes. |
| cloves to sweeten his breath. Perhaps Clark | | | | |
| Gable should have taken a leaf out of that | | | | In 1896, John C. Rice and May Irwin became |
| particular history book when filming Gone | | | | the first couple to be recorded kissing in a |
| With the Wind. Reportedly, his screen lover | | | | film called The Kiss. |
| Vivien Leigh didn't want to kiss him because | | | | |
| he had halitosis. | | | | The longest kiss in film history was between |
| | | | Jane Wyman and RayTooney in the 1941 film, |
| Kissing has not always been socially | | | | You're in the Army Now. The kiss lasted |
| acceptable. In 16th century Naples, it was an | | | | three-and-a-half minutes. |
| offence that carried the death penalty. In | | | | |
| Hartford, Connecticut, an old law still makes | | | | According to legend, any person who kisses |
| it illegal for a man to kiss his wife on a | | | | the Blarney Stone at Cork's 15th century |
| Sunday. And in Indiana there used to be a law | | | | Blarney Castle will be endowed with the gift |
| preventing men with moustaches from kissing, | | | | of eloquence and persuasive flattery. |
| presumably on the grounds of hygiene. | | | | |
| | | | Chile holds the world record for the largest |
| Countless poems, odes and books have been | | | | number of people kissing, set in 2004 in the |
| written on the subject of kissing. One of the | | | | capital of Santiago when 4,400 kissing |
| lesser-known works is The Art of Kissing, | | | | couples locked lips en masse. |