I asked several persons, without explaining my object,
to listen intently to a very gentle tapping sound, the nature
and source of which they all perfectly knew, and not one frowned;
but a man who joined us, and who could not conceive what we were
all doing in profound silence, when asked to listen, frowned much,
though not in an ill-temper, and said he could not in the least
understand what we all wanted. Dr. Piderit[3] who has published
remarks to the same effect, adds that stammerers generally
frown in speaking, and that a man in doing even so trifling
a thing as pulling on a boot, frowns if he finds it too tight.
Some persons are such habitual frowners, that the mere effort
of speaking almost always causes their brows to contract.
[2] `Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine,' Album, Legende iii.
[3] `Mimik und Physiognomik,' s. 46.
Men of all races frown when they are in any way perplexed in thought,
as I infer from the answers which I have received to my queries; but I framed
them badly, confounding absorbed meditation with perplexed reflection.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the Australians, Malays, Hindoos, and Kafirs
of South Africa frown, when they are puzzled.
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