[Enclosure]

D^r. Darwins Queries about expression.

1. “Is astonishment expressed by the eyes and mouth being opened wide and by the eyebrows being raised?”

It is, but the action is more observable in some individuals than in others. The habitual endeavour of the maori is to conceal the workings of internal feeling and it is only when an individual is off his guard or the force of passion breaks through the habitual restraint put upon the feelings that any outward manifestations are noticeable either in the expression of the face or the attitude of the person.⁹

2. “Does shame excite a blush when the color of the skin allows it to be visible?”

It does. Hundreds of instances have come under my observation   An amusing one occurred only a few days ago. An old man partly tatooed and rather darker than the average of his people, let a section of land (his all) to an Englishman for a term of years for a small rental just sufficient to keep him in clothes.—For some time there has been quite a mania among the Kaiapoi maoris for the possession of gigs and dog carts, and this seized my old friend who came to me to know whether he could not draw the rent for four years in one lump sum, to enable him to buy a gig that he had set his heart upon. The idea of this poor old clumsey ragged fellow driving in his private carriage was so absurd, that I burst out laughing; the old man blushed to the roots of his hair.¹⁰

3. “When a man is indignant or defiant, does he frown hold his body and head erect, square his shoulders, and clench his fists?”

He does. But immediately he begins to speak he loses the stiff set and tries to express his rage by the violent action of every part of his body.

I watched a man and woman quarrelling a few days ago and set down in my note-book the following particulars.—¹¹

—Eyes dilated.— body swayed violently backwards and forwards. Head inclined forward toward the antagonist— fists clenched, now thrown behind the body, now brought forward and directed toward eachothers faces.

6. “When in good spirits do the eyes sparkle with the skin round and under them a little wrinkled and with the mouth a little drawn back?”

I took the following notes whilst watching a group of maoris who were much amused by something that was being told them.

—Eyes sparkling, half closed. Teeth exposed. Flesh drawn into a round lump on the cheeks.— Corners of the eyes all gathered up.¹²

14. “Do children when sulky pout, or greatly protrude the lips?”

Yes. I have seen them constantly do so.— Man sometimes and woman very frequently.¹³

I could have answered more of D^r. Darwin’s questions but as he so particularly requests that memory may not be trusted to in doing so, I forbear till I can do so from actual observation of persons not likely to have copied their mode of expressing their feelings from Europeans.¹⁴

signed | James Stack