ould take that turn. There is now a "cure" in
which men and women walk barefoot in the grass. The cost to their
modesty is probably very slight.

+449. Modesty the opposite of impudence.+ Another sense of modesty is
the opposite of impudence, shrinking from making demands or otherwise
putting one's self forward in a way which bystanders might think in
excess of one's social position or ability. In these cases vanity
becomes its own punishment. The Kajans of the Mandalam refrain from
injuring private or group interests from fear of public opinion. "Such a
sentiment can exist only amongst those who have a feeling of shame
strongly developed. Such is the case amongst these people, not only as
to punishable offenses, but also in connection with their notions of
propriety."[1412] "Modesty was an unknown virtue to the bards of Vedic
India. They bragged and begged without shame."[1413] The same might be
said of the troubadours of the Middle Ages.

+450. Shame.+ Shame is felt when one is inferior, or is conscious of
being, or of being liable to be, unfavorably regarded. Modesty is the
reserve which keeps one from coming into judgment. One of the greatest
reasons for covering the body is the conviction that it would not be
admired if seen. One of us is ashamed if he is in excellent morning
dress when the others wear evening dress, or ungloved when all the rest
are gloved. A woman is ashamed to be without a crinoline or a bustle
when all the rest wear them. A man, when men wore wigs, could not appear
before a lady without his wig. An elderly lady says that when the
present queen of England brought in, at her marriage, the fashion of
brushing up the hair so as to uncover the ears, which had long been
covered, it seemed indecent. No woman now is ashamed to be a woman, but
in the first Christian centuries what they heard about their sex might
well have made them so. A woman is not ashamed to be a widow in the
Occident, but she may well be so in India. A woman may be ashamed to be
an old maid, or that she has no children, or has only girls. It depends
on the view current in the mores, and on the sensitiveness of the person
to unfavorable judgments. "Shame, for Arabs, occupies the place which we
ascribe to conscience. 'The tree lives only so long as its bark lives;
and the man only so long as he feels shame.' Arabs, however, are not
ashamed _in abstracto_, but before father and mother, before relatives,
and before common talk. 'Be as