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Show 208 .tXPR:msstON O:tr JOY: CHAP. VII1. this end htat the corners are retracted and the upper lip raised. Although we can hardly account for the shape of the mouth during laughter, which leads to wrinkles being formed beneath the eyes, nor for the peculiar reiterated sound of laughter, nor for the quivering of the jaws, nevertheless we may infer that all these effects are due to some common cause. For they are all characteristic and expressive of a pleased state of mind in various kinds of monkeys. A graduated series can be followed from violent to n1oderate laughter, to a broad smile, to a gentle smile, and to the expression of 1nere cheerfulness. During excessive laughter the whole body is often thrown backward and shakes, or is almost convulsed; the respiration is much disturbed; the head and face become gorged with blood, with the veins distended; and the orbicular muscles are spasmodically contracted in order to protect the eyes. Tears are freely shed. Hence, as formerly remarked, it is scarcely possible to point out any difference between the tear-stained face of a person after a paroxysm of excessive laughter and after a bitter crying-fit.15 It is probably due to the close similarity of the spasmodic movements caused by these widely different emotions that hysteric patients alternately cry and laugh with violence, and that young children sometimes pass suddenly from the one to the other state. Mr. Swinhoe informs me that he has often seen the Chinese, when suffering from deep grief, burst out into hysterical fits of laughter. I was anxious to know whether tears are freely shed 15 Sir J. Reynolds remarks(' Discourses,' xii. p. 100) "It is curious '( to observe, and it is certainly true, that the extrrn~cs of contrary " passions are, with very little variation, expressed by the same action.'' He gives as an instance the frantic joy of a Bacchante and the grief of a Mary Magdalen, CHAP. VIII. LAUGHTER. 209 during excessive laughter by most of the !'aces of men, and I hear f'rom my correspondents that this is the case. One instance was observed with the Hindoos, and they themselves said that it often occurred. So it is with the Chinese. The women of a wild tribe of Malays in the Malacca peninsula, sometimes shed tears when they laugh heartily, though this seldom occurs. vVith the Dyaks of Borneo it n1ust frequently be the case, at least with the women, for I hear from the Rajah C. Brooke that it is a common expression with them to say ''we nearly made tears from laughter." The aborigines of Australia express their emotions freely, and they are described by my correspondents as jumping about and clapping their hands for joy, and as often roaring with laughter. No less than four observers have seen their eyes freely watering on such occasions· and in one instance the tears rolled down their cheeks~ lVIr. Bulmer, a missionary in a remote part of Victoria, re1narks, "that they have a keen sense of the ridiculous· "they are excellent mimics, and when one of them is' " able to imitate the peculiarities of some absent " men1ber of the tribe, it is very common to hear all in " the camp convulsed with l~ughter." vVith Europ~ an~ hardly .an!thing excites laughter so easily as mimicry ; and It IS rather curious to find the same fact with the savages of Australia, who constitute one of the most distinct races in the world. . In So~thern Africa with two tribes of Kafirs, espeC1ally with the women, their eyes often fill with tears during laughter. Gaika, the brother of the chief Sandilli, answers my query on this head, with the words, "Yes, that is their common practice." Sir Andrew Smith has seen the painted face of a Hottentot woman all furrowed with tears after a fit of laughter. In Northern Africa, with the Abyssinians, tears are p |