356 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



process \vill be the same. The concept incongruity may therefore be 

 interpreted with more propriety as the unusual. These unusual coa- 

 litions of wit and laughter, however, may at times be eminently fit- 

 ting or congruous. 



The laughter induced by nitrogen monoxide or by cannabis 

 indica is probably hyperajmic or congestive in its origin. The Mausch 

 in all its forms, aesthetical, political, religious, spirituous, etc., ought 

 also to be treated in this connection. Some psychologist with 

 Atwater courage ought to make a study of the possible individual 

 and social utility of the Rausch. The savages, it is well known, 

 induced this intoxication by various means. 



Walter E. Roth, in describing certain songs of the northern Aus- 

 tralian aborigines, ^'^ relates an interesting fact concerning the genesis 

 of savage emotion. He says that, "while the songs are in progress, 

 one, two or more men — any that like — will take into their mouths, 

 chew and spit out again, the leaves of the 'stinging tree' [Lapartea 

 sp.). What with the pain and irritation so produced, such an indi- 

 vidual is speedily aroused into a state bordering on frenzy, when he 

 will commence eating the human excreta prepared for the purpose, 

 will both act and give expression to anything foul and bestial he can 

 think of, do his best to insult everybody present, start chasing the 

 women, and, rushing hither and thither, will finally fall to the ground 

 completely exhausted and collapsed. The mental and physical pain 

 to which the person is thus subjected may be gauged from the fact 

 that it requires some few weeks before he is sufficiently recovered to 

 resume his ordinary routine of daily duties. 



A most pernicious doctrine rather prevalent in theories of 

 aesthetics and play is that of self-illusion. One author even goes so 

 far as to say, 'Make-believe, pretence, representation, are of the essence 

 of play, mirth, and art.' It is a case where theory and half-baked 

 analysis run blindly against the facts. The pretence or self-illusion 

 is in the majority of cases 'quite as illusive as the grin of the Cheshire 

 cat. Sully says 'play is free activity entered upon for its own sake' 



(I) Walter E. Roth. B. A.. M. R. C. S.. etc., in Bulletin No. 4, 'North Queensland Ethnoffraphy, 

 Games. Sports and Amusements,' Brisbane, March, 1902, p. 22. 



