320 BLUSHING. Chap. XIII. 



only under a strong emotion, and when the skin is not 

 too dark from long exposure and want of cleanliness. 

 Mr. Lang answers, " I have noticed that shame almost 

 always excites a blush, which frequently extends as low 

 as the neck." Shame is also shown, as he adds, " by the 

 eyes being turned from side to side." As Mr. Lang was 

 a teacher in a native school, it is probable that he chiefly 

 observed children; and we know that they blush more 

 than adults. Mr. G. Taplin has seen half-castes blush- 

 ing, and he says that the aborigines have a word expres- 

 sive of shame. Mr. Hagenauer, who is one of those who 

 has never observed the Australians to blush, says that 

 he has " seen them looking down to the ground on ac- 

 count of shame; " and the missionary, Mr. Buhner, re- 

 marks that though " I have not been able to detect 

 anything like shame in the adult aborigines, I have 

 noticed that the eyes of the children, when ashamed, 

 present a restless, watery appearance, as if they did not 

 know where to look." 



The facts now given are sufficient to show that blush- 

 ing, whether or not there is any change of colour, is 

 common to most, probably to all, of the races of man. 



Movements and gestures wJiich accompany Blushing. 

 — Under a keen sense of shame there is a strong desire 

 for concealment. 20 We turn away the whole body, more 

 especially the face, which we endeavour in some manner 

 to hide. An ashamed person can hardly endure to meet 



20 Mr. Wedgwood says (Diet, of English Etymology, vol. 

 iii. 1865, p. 155) that the word shame " may well originate 

 in the idea of shade or concealment, and may be illustrated 

 by the Low German scheme, shade or shadow." Gratiolet 

 (De la Phys. pp. 357—362) has a good discussion on the 

 gestures accompanying shame; but some of his remarks 

 seem to me rather fanciful. See, also, Burgess (ibid. pp. 

 69, 134) on the same subject. 



