| OCR Text |
Show 234 SULKINESS. CHAP. IX. <luring youth, of a primordial habit, or from an occasional reversion to it. Young orangs and chimpanzee~ protrude their lips to an extraordinary degree, as described in a fonner chapter, when they are diseontented, somewhat angry, or sulky; also when they are surprised, a little frightened, and even when slightly pleased. Their mouths are protruded apparent! y for the sake of making the various noises propet· to these several states of mind; and its shape, as I observed with the chimpanzee, differed slightly when the cry of pleasure and that of anger were uttered. As soon as these animals become enraged, the shape of the n1outh wholly changes, and the teeth are exposed. The adult orang when wounded is said to e1nit "a singular cry, consisting at first of high notes, " which at length deepen into a low roar. vVhilo '' giving out the high notes he thrusts out his lips " into a funnel shape, but in uttering the low notes '' he holds his n1outh wide open." ~ 1 With the gorilla, the lower lip is said to be capable of great elongation. If then our sen1i-human progenitors protruded their lips when sulky or a little angered, in the same Inanner as do the existing anthropoid apes, it is not an anomalous, though a curious fact, that our children should exhibit, when similarly affected, a trace of the same expression, together with some tendency to utter a noise. For it is not at all unusual for animals to retain, more or less perfectly, during early youth, and subsequently to lose, characters which were aboriginally possessed by their adult progenitors, and which are still retained by distinct species, their near relations. Nor is it an ano1naious fact that the children of 11 Mi.iller, as quoted by Huxley, 'Man's Place in Nature,.' 1863, p. 38. I . DECISION. 235 sav~ge~ should exhiLit a tl·onger t nclency to pr trude theJr lips, when ulky, than the childr n of civiliz d Europeans; for the es ·ence of a vag ry seems to con it in tho retention of a primordial condition, and this occasionally holds good ev n with bodily peculiarities.12 It 1nay be objected to this view of the origin of pouting, that the a~thropoicl apes likewise protrude their lips w~1en astmu ·hed and even when a little plea ed; ·whilst w1th u this_ expression is gen rally confined to a sulky frame of mind. But we shall see in a future chapter that with men of various races surprise does sometimes lead ~o a slight .protrusi~n of the lips, though great ·urpnse or aston1shm nt IS more comtnonly shown by the mouth being widely opened. As when we s1nile or laugh we draw back the corners of the month, we have lo ~ ~ny tendency to protrude the lips, when pleased, If Indeed our early progenitors thus expre ·sed pleasure. ~ little gesture made by sulky children may here bo noticed, namely, their ''showing a cold shoulder." This has a different meaning, as, I believe, from the keeping both shoulders raised. A cross child, sitting on its parent' k~ e, will lift up the near shoulder, then j rk It away as If fron1 a caress, and afterwards give a backward pnsh with it, as if to push away the offender. I have seen a child, standing at some distance fron1 auy one, clearly express its feelings by raising on shoulder, giving it a little backward movement, and then turning away its whole body. Dec'ision or determinat~ion.-The firn1 closure of the mouth tends to give an oxpre~sion of <1 termi11ation 12 I havo given several iul::!tauces iu my 'Desc<.mt of Man,' vol. i. chap. iv. |
