They sat opposite, touching each other with their much protruded lips;
and the one put his hand on the shoulder of the other.
They then mutually folded each other in their arms.
Afterwards they stood up, each with one arm on the shoulder
of the other, lifted up their heads, opened their mouths,
and yelled with delight.
[21] Mr. Bain remarks (`Mental and Moral Science,' 1868, p.
239), "Tenderness is a pleasurable emotion, variously stimulated,
whose effort is to draw human beings into mutual embrace."
We Europeans are so accustomed to kissing as a mark of affection, that it
might be thought to be innate in mankind; but this is not the case.
Steele was mistaken when he said "Nature was its author, and it
began with the first courtship." Jemmy Button, the Fuegian, told me
that this practice was unknown in his land. It is equally unknown with
the New Zealanders, Tahitians, Papuans, Australians, Somals of Africa,
and the Esquimaux." But it is so far innate or natural that it
apparently depends on pleasure from close contact with a beloved person;
and it is replaced in various parts of the world, by the rubbing of noses,
as with the New Zealanders and Laplanders, by the rubbing or patting
of the arms, breasts, or stomachs, or by one man striking his own face
with the hands or feet of another.
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