Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/350

336 While the negro is capable of eating meat in an unpleasant state of decomposition, he is very sensitive against some tastes, and will make evident manifestations of his dislike of them. He is careful about the outer matters in drinking. He will always rinse his mouth first, even when he is intensely thirsty. If the cup is not too small, he takes it in both hands; and he likes to sit down with it. If the vessel is large and open, he draws in the water from the surface with his lips, without bringing them in contact with the dish. Sometimes negroes pour water into their mouths. When drinking at ponds and rivers, the water is carried to the mouth with the hand. For some mystic reason it is considered bad to lie flat down when drinking from rivers. The fear of being snapped up by a crocodile may have something to do with the matter.

Great attention is given in most of the tribes to the care of the body. The teeth are cleansed with a stick which has been chewed into a kind of brush. The hands are washed frequently, not by turning and twisting and rubbing them together one within the other, as with us, but by a straight up-and-down rubbing, such as is given to the other limbs. This manner of washing is so characteristic that an African might be distinguished by it from a European without reference to the color. The sun is their only towel.

The pocket handkerchief is as abhorrent to the negro as his manner of dispensing with it would be to us. The African finds a use unknown to us for his nose by making it a receptacle for carrying his roll of tobacco. Another tobacco-storage place is found behind the ears.

While joyous emotions are expressed in the most lively manner by negroes, signs of love and tenderness can hardly be read in their faces. The kiss is foreign to them, and no negro child has experienced the delight of being petted by its mother. The whole treatment of the child is neutral, and a matter of business. Signs of affection toward women from men are not permitted in public or in the presence of third persons. A negro man can only stare at a woman who pleases him. The women understand coquetry well, and, aside from a greater sensuality and lustfulness in expression, yield nothing in that respect to their white sisters. Marks of mutual regard are observed only among women, in embracings and hand-shakings.

The eye furnishes a very prominent mark of distinction between the white man and the black. The negro's eye usually gives an impression of shyness, which arises from the absence of any sharp line of distinction between the iris and the pupil. The resulting unsteadiness of the look gives the negro an expression of the animal which is not softened by his facial type. His assumed indifference often passes into consequentiality as when