210 LAUGHTER 



writers that the " ritual laugh " was enforced by the 

 Sardinians and others who habitually killed their old people 

 (their parents), upon their victims. They smiled and 

 laughed as part of the ceremony, the executioners also 

 smiling. The old people were supposed to laugh with joy 

 at the revivification which was in store for them in a 

 future state. So, too, the Hindoo widows used to laugh 

 when seated on the funeral pyre ready to be burnt. So, 

 too, is explained (by Reinach) the laughter of Joan of Arc 

 when she made her abjuration in front of the faggots 

 which were to burn her to death. Her laugh was caused 

 by the thought of her escape from persecution and of the 

 joyful resurrection soon to come. It was not an indication 

 that she was not serious, and that her abjuration of witch- 

 craft was a farce, as her enemies asserted. 



More difficult to explain is the laughter excited by 

 scenes or narrations which we call ludicrous, funny, 

 grotesque, comic ; and still more so the derisive and con- 

 temptuous laugh. Caricature or burlesque of well-known 

 men is a favourite method of producing laughter among 

 savages as well as civilised peoples. Why do we laugh 

 when a man on the stage searches everywhere for his hat, 

 which is all the time on his head ? Why do we laugh 

 when a pompous gentleman slips on a piece of orange- 

 peel and falls to the ground, or when one buffoon unex- 

 pectedly hits another on the head, and, before he has had 

 time to recover, with equal unexpectedness hooks his legs 

 with a stick and brings him heavily to the ground ? Why 

 did we laugh at the adventures of Mr. Penley in "Charley's 

 Aunt"? In all of these "ludicrous" affairs there is an 

 element of surprise, a slight shock which puts us off our 

 mental balance, and the subsequent laughter, when we 

 realise either that no serious harm has been done or \hat 

 the whole thing is make-believe, seems to partake of the 

 character of the " laugh of escape." It is caused by a 



