LAUGHTER AND WEEPING. t 325 



utterance, unaccompanied by tears, of cries, groans, or 

 moans, though arising from the same kind of causes as 

 weeping. Tennent describes sobs and ' choking cries,' as. 

 well as tears, in the captured elephant; while Houzeau 

 speaks of a young one ' crying ' on the death of its mother. 

 Buckland alludes to sobs in the dog. 



Weeping, like laughter, is sometimes very humanlike in 

 its character. Thus Bontius describes the weeping of an 

 orang as resembling that of a woman. 



Not only, however, do certain animals themselves shed 

 tears, but the dog at least frequently understands the signi- 

 ficance of those of man. That is to say, it connects them 

 with sorrow or suffering, and this connection leads it to 

 offer fond expressions of condolence to make various 

 attempts at consolation. 



It only remains to note that, as in man, the same cause 

 the same emotion may give rise equally to laughter and 

 tears in the same or different animals at the same or 

 different times, according to their temperaments or idiosyn- 

 crasies. Thus joy, especially when sudden and excessive, 

 produces sometimes laughter, sometimes tears, sometimes 

 neither, just as in man (Darwin). 



