Note 299 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
The custom of applying the nose to the cheek and drawing a breath, with closed eyes and a smacking of the lips, exists among the Southern Chinese, but only as an act of love. According to P. D’Enjoy, it is an olfactory gesture derived from the sensations of nutrition, as the European kiss on the lips is derived from the lascivious bite. (Bull. Soc. Anthr., Paris, 1897, pt. 2.)