In extreme cases, as Dr. Piderit remarks,[1104] we protrude and raise
both lips, or the upper lip alone, so as to close the nostrils as by a
valve, the nose being thus turned up. We seem thus to say to the
despised person that he smells offensively,[1105] in nearly the same
manner as we express to him by half-closing our eyelids, or turning
away our faces, that he is not worth looking at. It must not, however,
be supposed that such ideas actually pass through the mind when we
exhibit our contempt; but as whenever we have perceived a disagreeable
odour or seen a disagreeable sight, actions of this kind have been
performed, they have become habitual or fixed, and are now employed
under any analogous state of mind.
Various odd little gestures likewise indicate contempt; for instance,
_snapping one s fingers_. This, as Mr. Taylor remarks,[1106] is not
very intelligible as we generally see it; but when we notice that the
same sign made quite gently, as if rolling some tiny object away
between the finger and thumb, or the sign of flipping it away with the
thumb-nail and forefinger, are usual and well-understood deaf-and-dumb
gestures, denoting anything tiny, insignificant, contemptible, it seems
as though we had exaggerated and conventionalized a perfectly natural
action, so as to lose sight of its original meaning. There is a curious
mention of this gesture by Strabo. Mr. Washington Matthews informs me
that, with the Dakota Indians of North America, contempt is shown not
only by movements of the face, such as those above described, but
conventionally, by the hand being closed and held near the breast,
then, as the forearm is suddenly extended, the hand is opened and the
fingers separated from each other. If the person at whose expense the
sign is made is present, the hand is moved towards him, and the head
sometimes averted from him. This sudden extension and opening of the
hand perhaps indicates the dropping or throwing away a valueless
object.
The term disgust, in its simplest sense, means something offensive to
the taste. It is curious how readily this feeling is excited by
anything unusual in the appearance, odour, or nature of our food. In
Tierra del Fuego a native touched with his finger some cold preserved
meat which I was eating at our bivouac, and plainly showed utter
disgust at its softness; whilst I felt utter disgust at my food being
touched by a naked savage, though his hands did not appear dirty. A
smear of soup on a man s beard looks disgusting, though there is of
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