104 NOSE-GREETING 



compare with civilised Europeans in their faculties 

 and instincts. My own opportunities were never good 

 enough to give me a proper knowledge of these 

 things: I was never long enough at a time in the 

 company of savages to get through the outer crust. 

 It takes a long time to know them properly, even 

 for one who is a good observer, whose mind is ever 

 on the watch secretly, and who in this way takes 

 in knowledge unconsciously as he inhales the air. 

 This I have been able to do with the lower animals, 

 and to them I must continually look for support 

 as I proceed. 



To go on, then, in this same way. We note that 

 animals greet one another by putting their noses 

 together, sometimes touching or rubbing noses, as in 

 the case of horses; but in most animals they merely 

 sniff, first the nose then the face generally. They are 

 pleased, as it would seem, in recognising the familiar 

 smell of a friend: and when they meet as strangers, 

 as we may see every day in our horses, they exchange 

 nose-greetings just as civilised men exchange visiting- 

 cards. No doubt men, too, in the early state of 

 culture, took smell of one another when meeting as 

 strangers; and I imagine that the nose-rubbing per- 

 formance in some tribes is nothing but a survival 

 of the face-smelling custom or instinctive act. 



Nor is the deliberate face-smelling custom wholly 

 obsolete to-day, as we have seen in the reference to 

 the Mosquito Indians in the last chapter. A single 

 instance, it is true, but an extremely valuable one. 

 As a rule, the aboriginal American does not exhibit 



