640 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing, "both, with tears and with howls at such times of gladness, 

 is known in many lands. It has been lately reported among 

 the Andamanese and was noticed by Cabeza de Vaca in 1527 

 among the Caddoes of Texas and Louisiana. It may also be con- 

 strued as mentioned about the ancient Israelites in the twenty- 

 ninth, thirty-third, and forty-fifth chapters of Genesis, where 

 weeping is recorded at the meeting of Jacob and Rachel, Jacob 

 and Esau, and Joseph and Benjamin. Singularly enough, the 

 same practice was found existing fifty years ago in central Aus- 

 tralia, where parents upon meeting children after a long absence 

 fell upon their necks and wept bitterly. The Tahitians cut them- 

 selves with shark's teeth and indulge in loud wailing to testify 

 gladness at the arrival of a friend, and the New-Zealanders scar- 

 ify themselves with lava on such meetings. 



Dr. E. B. Tylor explains the practice as mourning for those 

 who had died during the interval of separation, thus following 

 Hennepin in his account of La Salle's visit to the Biskatronge 

 nation in 1685 as follows: "At their arrival those people fell 

 a-crying most bitterly for a quarter of an hour. This is their 

 custom whenever there comes any strangers afar off amongst 

 them, because their arrival puts them in mind of their deceased 

 relations which they imagine to be upon a great journey, and 

 whose return they expect every hour." The proceeding is ex- 

 plained in the account by Alexander Henry of the Assiniboin 

 feasts in 177G which were begun by the violent weeping of the 

 whole party, and the reason they gave was that it was in memory 

 of their deceased relatives whose absence was brought fresh into 

 their minds. This religious ceremonial of the Indians was mis- 

 taken by some travelers for salutation, which it only resembled 

 as the formal grace before meat resembles the modern " good- 

 morning " or the libation among the Romans was analogous to 

 the " salve " of their daily life. 



Hennepin's explanation does not apply to the large majority 

 of the cases known, and indeed is properly grief -weeping. If joy- 

 weeping is not to be classed with the tricks to deceive the jealous 

 gods, it possibly arises from the familiar agitation in which the 

 signs of extreme joy and mirth are similar to those of grief. 

 Most of us have laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks. Such 

 exhibitions may have induced the real or imitative expression of 

 joy by crying. In this connection it is curious that the English 

 word " greeting," defined as a kind salutation, is still preserved in 

 the lowland Scotch dialect with the sense of weeping or mourning. 



The Heart. Gestures of salutation, the motions of which are 

 directly connected with the heart, have some special interest. 



In some Oriental countries the mere bow- was not held to be 

 enough. Sometimes the right hand was placed across the head. 



