Chap. X. SNEERING AND DEFIANCE. 251 



if defying any one in earnest, would not unconsciously 

 have uncovered their canine tooth on the side, which- 

 ever it might be, towards the offender. For we have 

 seen that some persons cannot voluntarily make their 

 eyebrows oblique, yet instantly act in this manner when 

 affected by any real, although most trifling, cause of dis- 

 tress. The power of voluntarily uncovering the canine 

 on one side of the face being thus often wholly lost, 

 indicates that it is a rarely used and almost abortive 

 action. It is indeed a surprising fact that man should 

 possess the power, or should exhibit any tendency to its 

 use; for Mr. Sutton has never noticed a snarling action 

 in our nearest allies, namely, the monkeys in the Zoologi- 

 cal Gardens, and he is positive that the baboons, though 

 furnished with great canines, never act thus, but un- 

 cover all their teeth when feeling savage and ready for 

 an attack. Whether the adult anthropomorphous apes, 

 in the males of whom the canines are much larger than 

 in the females, uncover them when prepared to fight, 

 is not known. 



The expression here considered, whether that of a 

 playful sneer or ferocious snarl, is one of the most curi- 

 ous which occurs in man. It reveals his animal descent; 

 for no one, even if rolling on the ground in a deadly grap- 

 ple with an enemy, and attempting to bite him, would 

 try to use his canine teeth more than his other teeth. 

 We may readily believe from our affinity to the anthropo- 

 morphous apes that our male semi-human progenitors 

 possessed great canine teeth, and men are now occasion- 

 ally* born having them of unusuallv large size, with inter- 

 spaces in the opposite jaw for their reception. 17 We may 

 further suspect, notwithstanding that we have no sup- 

 port from analogy, that our semi-human progenitors un- 



17 ' The Descent of Man,' 1871, vol. i. p. 126. 



