they were first brought together. They sat opposite, touching each
other with their much protruded lips; and the one put his hand on the
shoulder of the other. They then mutually folded each other in their
arms. Afterwards they stood up, each with one arm on the shoulder of
the other, lifted up their heads, opened their mouths, and yelled with
delight.[822]
We Europeans are so accustomed to kissing as a mark of affection, that
it might be thought to be innate in mankind; but this is not the case.
Steele was mistaken when he said Nature was its author, and it began
with the first courtship. Jemmy Button, the Fuegian, told me that this
practice was unknown in his land. It is equally unknown with the New
Zealanders, Tahitians, Papuans, Australians, Somals of Africa, and the
Esquimaux. But it is so far innate or natural that it apparently
depends on pleasure from close contact with a beloved person; and it is
replaced in various parts of the world, by the rubbing of noses, as
with the New Zealanders and Laplanders, by the rubbing or patting of
the arms, breasts, or stomachs, or by one man striking his own face
with the hands or feet of another. Perhaps the practice of blowing, as
a mark of affection, on various parts of the body may depend on the
same principle.[823]
The feelings which are called tender are difficult to analyse; they
seem to be compounded of affection, joy, and especially of sympathy.
These feelings are in themselves of a pleasurable nature, excepting
when pity is too deep, or horror is aroused, as in hearing of a
tortured man or animal. They are remarkable under our present point of
view from so readily exciting the secretion of tears. Many a father and
son have wept on meeting after a long separation, especially if the
meeting has been unexpected. No doubt extreme joy by itself tends to
act on the lacrymal glands; but on such occasions as the foregoing
vague thoughts of the grief which would have been felt had the father
and son never met, will probably have passed through their minds; and
grief naturally leads to the secretion of tears. Thus on the return of
Ulysses:
Telemachus Rose, and clung weeping round his father s breast.
There the pent grief rained o er them, yearning thus.
* * * * * *
Thus piteously they wailed in sore unrest,
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