Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals

CHAP. XI. SHRUGGING THE SHOULDERS. 269

panied in some cases by the other proper movements, is
a gesture natural to mankind.

This gesture implies an unintentional or unavoidable
action on our own part, or one that we cannot perform;
or an action performed by another person which we
! cannot prevent. It accompanies such speeches as, " It

f was not my fault;" " It is impossible for me to grant

j this favour; " cc He must follow his own course, I can-

i not stop him." Shrugging the shoulders likewise ex-

presses patience, or the absence of any intention to re-
l sist. Hence the muscles which raise the shoulders are

) sometimes called, as I have been informed by an artist,

\ " the patience muscles." Shylock the Jew, says,

" Sig-nor Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto have yo'u rated me
About my monies and usances;
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug."

Merchant of Venice, act i. sc. 3.

Sir C. Bell has given 14 a life-like figure of a man,
y who is shrinking back from some terrible danger, and is

; on the point of screaming out in abject terror. He is

f represented with his shoulders lifted up almost to his

i ears; and this at once declares that there is no thought

' of resistance.

j As shrugging the shoulders generally implies "I

1 cannot do this or that," so by a slight change, it some-

times implies " I won't do it." The movement then ex-
\ presses a dogged determination not to act. Olmsted

describes15 an Indian in Texas as giving a great shrug
^ to his shoulders, when he was informed that a party of

men were Germans and not Americans, thus expressing
that he would have nothing to do with them. Sulky and

14 * Anatomy of Expression,' p. 166.
18 * Journey through Texas,' p. 352.