int
in the character of primitive man is more interesting and surprising
than his vanity. This unique susceptibility to social influence is,
indeed, essential to the complex institutional and associational
life of mankind. The transmission of language, tradition, morality,
knowledge, and all race experience from the older to the younger,
and from one generation to another, is accomplished through mental
suggestibility, and the activity of the individual in associational
life is mediated largely through it.

Now, taking them as we find them, we know that such emotions as
modesty and shame are associated with actions which injure and shock
others, and show us off in a bad light. They are violations of modes
of behavior which have become habitual in one way and another. In an
earlier paper[244] have indicated some of the steps by which approvals
and disapprovals were set up in the group. When once a habit is fixed,
interference with its smooth running causes an emotion. The nature of
the habit broken is of no importance. If it were habitual for _grandes
dames_ to go barefoot on our boulevards or to wear sleeveless dresses
at high noon, the contrary would be embarrassing. Psychologically the
important point is that, when the habit is set up, the attention is
in equilibrium. When inadvertently or under a sufficiently powerful
stimulus we break through a habit, the attention and associative
memory are brought into play. We are conscious of a break, of what
others will think; we anticipate a damaged or diminished personality;
we are, in a word, upset. We may consequently expect to find that
whatever brings the individual into conflict with the ordinary
standards of life of the society in which he is living is the
occasion of a strain on the attention and of an accompanying bodily
change.[245]

A minimum expression of modesty, and one having an organic rather than
a social basis, is seen in the coyness of the female among animals.
In many species of animals the female does not submit at once to the
solicitations of the male, but only after the most arduous wooing.

The female cuckoo answers the call of her mate with an
alluring laugh that excites him to the utmost, but it is long
before she gives herself up to him. A mad chase through tree
tops ensues, during which she constantly incites him with that
mocking call, till the poor fellow is fairly driven crazy. The
female kingfisher often torments her