250 SNEERING AND DEFIANCE. Chap. X. 



of the upper lip; and this movement, if fully carried 

 out, would have uncovered the canine, and would have 

 produced a true sneer. 



Mr. Bulmer, an Australian missionary in a remote 

 part of Gipps' Land, says, in answer to my query about 

 the uncovering of the canine on one side, " I find that 

 the natives in snarling at each other speak with the 

 teeth closed, the upper lip drawn to one side, and a 

 general angry expression of face; but they look direct 

 at the person addressed." Three other observers in Aus- 

 tralia, one in Abyssinia, and one in China, answer my 

 query on this head in the affirmative; but as the ex- 

 pression is rare, and as they enter into no details, I am 

 afraid of implicitly trusting them. It is, however, by 

 no means improbable that this animal-like expression 

 may be more common with savages than with civilized 

 races. Mr. Geach is an observer who may be fully 

 trusted, and he has observed it on one occasion in a Malay 

 in the interior of Malacca. The Eev. S. 0. Glenie an- 

 swers, " We have observed this expression with the 

 natives of Ceylon, but not often." Lastly, in North 

 America, Dr. Bothrock has seen it with some wild In- 

 dians, and often in a tribe adjoining the Atnahs. 



Although the upper lip is certainly sometimes raised 

 on one side alone in sneering at or defying any one, I 

 do not know that this is always the case, for the face 

 is commonly half averted, and the expression is often 

 momentary. The movement being confined to one side 

 may not be an essential part of the expression, but may 

 depend on the proper muscles being incapable of move- 

 ment excepting on one side. I asked four persons to 

 endeavour to act voluntarilv in this manner; two could 

 expose the canine only on the left side, one only on the 

 right side, and the fourth on neither side. Neverthe- 

 less it is by no means certain that these same persons, 



