momentary action by ludicrously slight causes. A gentleman rewarded a
young lady by an absurdly small present; she pretended to be offended,
and as she upbraided him, her eyebrows became extremely oblique, with
the forehead properly wrinkled. Another young lady and a youth, both in
the highest spirits, were eagerly talking together with extraordinary
rapidity; and I noticed that, as often as the young lady was beaten,
and could not get out her words fast enough, her eyebrows went
obliquely upwards, and rectangular furrows were formed on her forehead.
She thus each time hoisted a flag of distress; and this she did
half-a-dozen times in the course of a few minutes. I made no remark on
the subject, but on a subsequent occasion I asked her to act on her
grief-muscles; another girl who was present, and who could do so
voluntarily, showing her what was intended. She tried repeatedly, but
utterly failed; yet so slight a cause of distress as not being able to
talk quickly enough, sufficed to bring these muscles over and over
again into energetic action.
The expression of grief, due to the contraction of the grief-muscles,
is by no means confined to Europeans, but appears to be common to all
the races of mankind. I have, at least, received trustworthy accounts
in regard to Hindoos, Dhangars (one of the aboriginal hill-tribes of
India, and therefore belonging to a quite distinct race from the
Hindoos), Malays, Negroes and Australians. With respect to the latter,
two observers answer my query in the affirmative, but enter into no
details. Mr. Taplin, however, appends to my descriptive remarks the
words this is exact. With respect to negroes, the lady who told me of
Fra Angelico s picture, saw a negro towing a boat on the Nile, and as
he encountered an obstruction, she observed his grief-muscles in strong
action, with the middle of the forehead well wrinkled. Mr. Geach
watched a Malay man in Malacca, with the comers of his mouth much
depressed, the eyebrows oblique, with deep short grooves on the
forehead. This expression lasted for a very short time; and Mr. Geach
remarks it was a strange one, very much like a person about to cry at
some great loss.
In India Mr. H. Erskine found that the natives were familiar with this
expression; and Mr. J. Scott, of the Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, has
obligingly sent me a full description of two cases. He observed during
some time, himself unseen, a very young Dhangar woman from Nagpore, the
wife of one of the gardeners, nursing her baby who was at the point of
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