The information on this curious subject collected by the two American savants may perhaps set some of our readers to search for ‘singing beaches’ on these islands. The phenomenon is well worthy of investigation, and no light seems as yet to have been thrown on its cause, nor any progress made towards the solution of the mystery of the difference between mute and musical sand.
NOSES.
A popular lecturer in one of his discourses had occasion to speak on noses, and he himself, ‘defective only in his Roman nose,’ declared, had he the choice of noses, his face should be ornamented by a ‘regular weather-cutter.’ The desire was commendable and worthy attention, for strangers are instinctively judged by their noses. The nose indeed proclaims the man, and is the outward and visible symbol of inward mental calibre and intellectual character. Men of note almost invariably possess decided and prominent ‘leading articles;’ whilst an insufficient nasal accompaniment not unfrequently denotes inanity, lack of moral vigour, and at once negatives qualities which would otherwise give respect and credit. Of course there are extremes and exceptions; but generally, it is, that the more prolonged the proboscis the more striking is the countenance, and the more original the force of character.
An extreme case is recorded of a Lancashire man, whose prodigious feature became a centre of attraction in the busiest thoroughfares of Manchester, whilst he was on a visit there. Becoming at length either tired or confused by the inquisitive attention and wonderment of a crowd of admirers, he seized his nose with both hands and gave it a sudden impatient twist, as though removing an obstruction from the footway, and said sharply: ‘There—be quick, and get past as soon as you can.’
A Yorkshire manufacturer whose good living had given him ‘a nose as red as a comet,’ was told by a wealthy friend very bluntly, ‘I couldn’t afford to keep that nose of thine.’ Another friend assured him he had no cause for fear of not living comfortably, for should all other means of subsistence fail, he could easily hire himself out as a railway danger-signal.
Amongst the South Sea islanders, the nose is made to be a medium of expression of affection and amity. Tribes swearing everlasting peace, seal the compact with a promiscuous rubbing of noses against noses; by the same frictional process, maidens declaim their woes at parting and joys on reunion with other maidens, the action being attended by—so said an eye-witness—‘the shedding of a power of tears.’ Lovers make their amatory declarations through their noses, their courtship being a protracted series of rub-rub-rubbing of nose to nose.
We recall an interruption Dr Binney had whilst he was preaching on one occasion. He saw opposite to him in the gallery a countryman making elaborate preparations for putting his handkerchief to the common usage appointed to it. The doctor became interested, and stayed expectant in his discourse just before the crisis. The countryman blew a terrible blast, awakening the echoes, and almost perceptibly shaking the building to its foundations. The doctor, having
Met with many a breeze before,
But never such a blow,
waited for the fainting echoes to die, and then said with impressive gravity: ‘Let us now resume.’