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To the Editor of Nature

As I observe you permit a wide latitude of subjects in your paper I trust the following notes on Zoological & Botanical subjects in this Colony may find admission

Expression in Kafirs & Hottentots

The following observations were made too late for transmission to M. Darwin

1. Is astonishment expressed by the eyes & mouth being opened wide, & by the eyebrows being raised?

In Kafirs (Amakosa) eyebrows raised, & a slight whistle at the price of an article. Sometimes by the interjection "Q-how," an expression rapidly made use of by Europeans much in contact with them.

2. Does shame excite a blush &c?

I have never observed this, but when sick, dead-drunk, or in great terror Kafirs turn a greenish brown tint, which extends over the face & neck, & they are able to do this also when feigning sickness.

3. When a man is indignant or defiant does he frown, hold his body & head erect square his shoulders & clench his fists? I have observed Kafirs do all but the last.

4. When considering deeply on any subject or trying to understand any puzzle does he frown or wrinkle the skin beneath the lower eyelids?

Frowns with head bent slightly forward & hand not unseldom placed over the mouth.

5. I have been unable to get an answer to this question on grief although I have shown the photograph of the girl sent to me by M. D. to several intelligent natives & have had no opportunity of personally determining it.

6. When in good spirits do the eyes sparkle with the skin a little wrinkled round & under them, & with the mouth a little drawn back in the corners?

Yes. The mouth is so far drawn back as to show all the front teeth.

12. Is laughter ever carried to such an extreme as to bring tears into the eyes?

Yes. Both among Hottentots (more or less half breeds) & Kafirs, especially with the former when drunk or under the influence of "Dakka"

17. Is the head nodded vertically in affirmation & shaken laterally in negation?

Yes among Kafirs.

The above observations have been made on Kafirs more or less brought up in the neighbourhood of Europeans and belonging either to Toise's or Sandilli's tribes.

It is curious to notice how constantly natives use their teeth, where a European would make use of his hands.

Thus to undo a knot in a riem, to bend a piece of wire or even extract a nail a Kafir will often have recourse to his teeth.

Both men & women, but especially the latter use them & their nails in fighting. About a year ago one of Toise's sons was brought before the magistrate for biting off a man's finger in a quarrel, & I have often seen men thus injured. I once witnessed a most disgusting fight between two Kafir women in which the one bit a large piece from the breast of another