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With Europeans hardly anything excites laughter so easily as mimicry;
and it is rather curious to find the same fact with the savages of Australia,
who constitute one of the most distinct races in the world.
In Southern Africa with two tribes of Kafirs, especially with
the women, their eyes often fill with tears during laughter.
Gaika, the brother of the chief Sandilli, answers my query on
this bead, with the words, "Yes, that is their common practice."
Sir Andrew Smith has seen the painted face of a Hottentot
woman all furrowed with tears after a fit of laughter.
In Northern Africa, with the Abyssinians, tears are secreted
under the same circumstances. Lastly, in North America, the same
fact has been observed in a remarkably savage and isolated tribe,
but chiefly with the women; in another tribe it was observed
only on a single occasion.
Excessive laughter, as before remarked, graduates into moderate laughter.
In this latter case the muscles round the eyes are much less contracted,
and there is little or no frowning. Between a gentle laugh and a broad smile
there is hardly any difference, excepting that in smiling no reiterated
sound is uttered, though a single rather strong expiration, or slight noise--
a rudiment of a laugh--may often be heard at the commencement of a smile.
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