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
death; and he distinctly saw the eyebrows raised at the inner comers,
the eyelids drooping, the forehead wrinkled in the middle, the mouth
slightly open, with the comers much depressed. He then came from behind
a screen of plants and spoke to the poor woman, who started, burst into
a bitter flood of tears, and besought him to cure her baby. The second
case was that of a Hindustani man, who from illness and poverty was
compelled to sell his favourite goat. After receiving the money, he
repeatedly looked at the money in his hand and then at the goat, as if
doubting whether he would not return it. He went to the goat, which was
tied up ready to be led away, and the animal reared up and licked his
hands. His eyes then wavered from side to side; his “mouth was
partially closed, with the corners very decidedly depressed.” At last
the poor man seemed to make up his mind that he must part with his
goat, and then, as Mr. Scott saw, the eyebrows became slightly oblique,
with the characteristic puckering or swelling at the inner ends, but
the wrinkles on the forehead were not present. The man stood thus for a
minute, then heaving a deep sigh, burst into tears, raised up his two
hands, blessed the goat, turned round, and without looking again, went
away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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