RIDICULING FELLOW-TRIBESMEN 245

if, as one may assume, it is directed against blunders it has
a sociological significance. It becomes a " social sanction,"
which urges a youth to do his best in the field. Another
example illustrates the impulse to laugh at a comrade's
failure to accomplish a feat for which he is totally un-
prepared. A member of a European party which was
visiting the Weddas could move his ears. A native was
asked to do the same ; and the others, knowing what was
to be done, watched him attentively. The man singled out
for the feat looked blankly towards the sky, his ears re-
maining " as if nailed to his head " ; at this moving spectacle
one of the onlookers suddenly broke out into laughter, the
others at once joining in.^ Here we have laughter at a
fellow-tribesman, in face of Europeans too, exactly similar to
that which is directed against the European himself. Doubt-
less, there is much of this kind of laughter at those who
make an exhibition of their limitations, especially when the
attempt is preceded by a display of vanity and boastfulness.
In this respect, too, savage laughter has the ring of the
merriment of the playground and of the circus.
