I have also on these occasions noticed a slight twitching
of the muscle which draws up the outer part of the upper lip;
and this movement, if fully carried out, would have uncovered
the canine, and would have produced a true sneer.
[15] `Anatomy of Expression,' p. 136. Sir C. Bell calls (p. 131)
the muscles which uncover the canines the snarling muscles.
[16] Hensleigh Wedgwood, `Dictionary of English Etymology,'
1865, vol. iii. pp. 240, 243.
Mr. Bulmer, an Australian missionary in a remote part of Gipps' Land, says,
in answer to my query about the uncovering of the canine on one side, "I find
that the natives in snarling at each other speak with the teeth closed,
the upper lip drawn to one side, and a general angry expression of face;
but they look direct at the person addressed." Three other observers
in Australia, one in Abyssinia, and one in China, answer my query on this
head in the affirmative; but as the expression is rare, and as they
enter into no details, I am afraid of implicitly trusting them.
It is, however, by no means improbable that this animal-like expression
may be more common with savages than with civilized races.
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