256 DISGUST. Chap. XI. 



agreeable odour or seen a disagreeable sight, actions of 

 this kind have been performed, they have become habit- 

 ual or fixed, and are now employed under any analogous 

 state of mind. 



Various odd little gestures likewise indicate con- 

 tempt; for instance, snapping one's fingers. This, as 

 Mr. Tylor remarks, 6 " is not very intelligible as we gen- 

 erally see it; but when we notice that the same sign 

 made quite gently, as if rolling some tiny object away 

 between the finger and thumb, or the sign of flipping 

 it away with the thumb-nail and forefinger, are usual 

 and well-understood deaf-and-dumb gestures, denoting 

 anything tiny, insignificant, contemptible, it seems as 

 though we had exaggerated and conventionalized a per- 

 fectly natural action, so as to lose sight of its original 

 meaning. There is a curious mention of this gesture 

 by Strabo." Mr. Washington Matthews informs me 

 that, with the Dakota Indians of North America, con- 

 tempt is shown not only by movements of the face, such 

 as those above described, but " conventionally, by the 

 hand being closed and held near the breast, then, as the 

 forearm is suddenly extended, the hand is opened and 

 the fingers separated from each other. If the person at 

 whose expense the sign is made is present, the hand is 

 moved towards him, and the head sometimes averted 

 from him." This sudden extension and opening of the 

 hand perhaps indicates the dropping or throwing away 

 a valueless object. 



The term ( disgust/ in its simplest sense, means 

 something offensive to the taste. It is curious how read- 

 ily this feeling is excited by anything unusual in the 

 appearance, odour, or nature of our food. In Tierra del 

 Fuego a native touched with his finger some cold pre- 



e • 



Early History of Mankind,' 2nd edit. 1870, p. 45. 



