d later times that this emphatic gesture seems to have
flourished as a violent method of expressing contempt. It was by
no means confined to the lower classes, and Kleinpaul, in
discussing this form of "speech without words," quotes examples
of various noble persons, even princesses, who are recorded thus
to have expressed their feelings. (Kleinpaul, _Sprache ohne
Worte_, pp. 271-273.) In more recent times the gesture has become
merely a rare and extreme expression of unrestrained feeling in
coarse-grained peasants. Zola, in the figure of Mouquette in
_Germinal_, may be said to have given a kind of classic
expression to the gesture. In the more remote parts of Europe it
appears to be still not altogether uncommon. This seems to be
notably the case among the South Slavs, and Krauss states that
"when a South Slav woman wishes to express her deepest contempt
for anyone she bends forward, with left hand raising her skirts,
and with the right slapping her posterior, at the same time
exclaiming: 'This for you!'" (Kryptadia, vol. vi, p. 200.)

A verbal survival of this gesture, consisting in the contemptuous
invitation to kiss this region, still exists among us in remote
parts of the country, especially as an insult offered by an angry
woman who forgets herself. It is said to be commonly used in
Wales. ("Welsh AEdoelogy," Kryptadia, vol. ii, pp. 358, et seq.)
In Cornwall, when addressed by a woman to a man it is sometimes
regarded as a deadly insult, even if the woman is young and
attractive, and may cause a life-long enmity between related
families. From this point of view the nates are a symbol of
contempt, and any sexual significance is excluded. (The
distinction is brought out by Diderot in _Le Neveu de Rameau:_
"_Lui:_--Il y a d'autres jours ou il ne m'en couterait rien pour
etre vil tant qu'on voudrait; ces jours-la, pour un liard, je
baiserais le cul a la petite Hus. _Moi:_--Eh! mais, l'ami, elle
est blanche, jolie, douce, potelee, et c'est un acte d'humilite
auquel un plus delicat que vous pourrait quelquefois s'abaisser.
_Lui:_--Entendons-nous; c'est qu'il y a baiser le cul au simple,
et baiser le cul au figure.")

It must be added that a sexual form of exhibitionism of the nates
must still be recognized. It occurs in masochism and expresses
the desire for passive flagel