The Use of the Kiss in Haggard's The Virgin of the Sun
Gustavo Flores
California State University, San Bernardino

1. For has it not always been my lot in life to be kissed of fortune and to gather great store, and then of a sudden to lose it all as I was to lose that rich multitude of fishes? pg. 21
2. When I go forth, my armies, who still look on me as half a god, shout their welcome and kiss the air after their heathen fashion. pg. 21
3. Throwing her arms about me she kissed me thrice, on either cheek and on the lips, doubtless because she was overwrought, and in her thankfulness forgot her maidenly reserve, though as William Bull said afterwards, this forgetfulness did not cause her to kiss him who had also helped her up the hill. pg. 42
4. Those kisses were like wine to me, for it is strange how, if we love her, by the decree of Nature the touch of a beautiful woman's lips, felt for the first time, affects us in our youth. pg. 41
5. Now my young blood being awakened, I was minded to return those kisses, and began to do so with a Jews interest, when I heard a rough voice swearing many strange oaths, and heard also the other women who had sheltered with us in the cave begin to titter, for the moment forgetting all their private woes, as those of their sex will do when there is kissing in the wind. pg. 41
6. Take those lips of yours from her, fellow, or I’ll cut them from your chops.” pg. 41
7. …while her kisses seemed still to burn upon my lips. pg. 47
8. …with a swift movement laid her fingers against her lips and threw a kiss to me. pg. 52
9. I could not mistake the meaning of this signaled kiss. pg. 52
10. But now on the wings of that blown kiss thither she had flown back again, not to befrighted out for many a day. pg. 52
11. Yet beware of pretty women, Nephew, and I pray you kiss not those as you did the lady Blanche Aleys at Hastings, lest it should upset my household and turn servants into mistresses.” pg. 57.
12. He seemed bewildered also and very weak, yet I think he understood that I was playing a friends part to him, for he bowed towards me in a stately, courteous way and kissed the air thrice, but what this meant at the time I did not know. pg. 69
13. It was as though the nature in her know that touch again, as by some instinct every woman does, if once the toucher’s lips have been near her own, though it be long ago. pg. 81
14. Of one thing only she said nothing—the kisses with which we had parted. pg. 89
15. I saved you and we kissed and were parted. pg. 96
16. Here I welcomed my wife as best I could, kissing her as she crossed the threshold and saying certain sweet words that I had prepared, to which she smiled and answer. pg. 100
17. At length with a kiss I tore myself away, for I could bide no longer and the horses were waiting presently. pg. 102
18. Here, while they hung back, he advanced when he went upon his knees and laid his hands upon my steel-clad feet. pg. 124
19. On the deck of this ship Blanche herself had stood and smiled and talked, for once we visited it together shortly before our marriage, and I remembered how I had kissed her in its cabin. pg. 130
20. …also Kari clinging to the reeds of the balsa at my side, and from time to time kissing the golden image of Pachacamac which hung about his neck. pg. 137
21. She did more, indeed—in my dream—for lifting that tress of fragrant hair, she let it fall like thistledown across my face and mouth, and then kissed the hair, for I felt her breath reach me through its strands. pg. 143
22. When I heard this, making no answer, I swept her into my arms and kissed her, and there she lay upon my breast and kissed me back. pg. 165
23. Indeed, now I learned for the first time how high a princess she was, since when her litter passed, these folk prostrated themselves, kissing the air and the dust. pg. 170
24. “So I knelt and kissed the hand of the King, my father, and left him, wondering at his nobleness who could show such a road to his only child, though its treading would mean woe to him and mayhap the ruin of his hopes. pg. 175
25. Then what matters anything, even if we are slain? Farewell, beloved, kiss me and farewell.” pg. 178
26. Whilst I though thus, lost in a rapture such as I had not felt since Blanche kissed me at the mouth of the Hastings cave after I had killed the three Frenchmen with as many arrows from my black bow, I heard a sound and looked up to see a man standing before me. pg. 178
27. Then before I could answer, Kari took my hand and touched it with his lips. Another moment and I had lost sight of him in the shadows. pg. 181
28. “Lord and Lover,” she said, “I go to what fate I know not, leaving you to what fate I know not, and as your lips have said, it is right that I should go.” pg. 198
29. Well, now again I trust to my god,” and round his neck, he kissed it, then turning, bowed and prayed to the Sun. pg. 237
30. Then sobbing and muttering she threw her arms about him and kissed.  Nor did he shame to kiss her in return, there before them all. pg. 241
31. Then he [Upanqui] kissed him on the brow and Kari knelt down and did his father homage. pg. 241
32. Moreover, I have noticed that they seldom learn wisdom, and that what they have done before, they are ready to do again, who believe anything that soft lips swear to them. pg. 244
33. Then he [Kari] stood up on his throne and bowed towards me, kissing the air as though to a god, and taking the royal chain that every Inca wore from about his neck, set it upon mind. pg. 265
34. Says Larico, “Go take her, you whom men call a god, but I call a drunken fool ready to risk all for a  woman’s lips.” pg. 267
35. Go take her and ask the blessing upon your kisses of yonder dead king whose lady rest you break.” pg. 268
36. We clung and kissed. Then I thrust her [Quilla] away, saying: “Come swiftly from this ill-omened place.” pg. 268
37. Then the eight warriors with me told them all the tale of the saving of Quilla and the death of the giant Urco at my hand, whereon their captains came and kissed my feet, saying that I was in truth a god, though heretofore some of them had held me to be but a man. pg. 27
38. More, he [Kari] knelt before me and kissed the ground, as the humblest of his slaves might do before his own majesty. pg. 282
39. “I remember it,” I said, “That [to Quilla] in the beloved arms you should sleep at last.” pg. 285
40. I knew it always, but [to Hubert] being a woman I desired to hear it from your own lips. pg. 285
41. Now, Lord-from-the-Sea, at whose coming my sleeping heart awoke to love and whose sword saved me from shame and death, giving me back to life and light, here, before this company of our people, I, the Daughter of the Moon, defying the Sun who held me captive, and all his servants, take you to husband with this kiss,” and leaning forward Quilla pressed her lips upon my own… pg. 294